Roads data is critical to planning and development of rural transportation in developing countries, where better transportation systems can help improve livelihoods.
Bright Lights, Big City?
Researchers using nighttime lights data to ask questions about economic development in sub-Saharan Africa have findings counter to expectation.
A Road Map Toward Better Understanding of Global Environmental Change
The Social Process Diagram published in 1992 was an attempt to map out the key systems and interactions among systems that were seen as underpinning the human drivers of global environmental change.
Migration in Risk-Prone Areas
Access to data that lets us analyze global migration patterns is critical to climate change adaptation planning, among other applications.
The Impact of Sea Level Rise on Coastal Wetlands
An analysis of coastal wetlands loss from sea level rise that was conducted for the Ramsar Convention’s Scientific and Technical Review Panel provides estimates of wetland losses as a basis for identifying potential adaptation measures.
New Understanding of Soil Quality throughout Africa
A new interactive mapping tool lets users visualize a broad range of soil data for the continent of Africa.
Sandy’s Surge Affected More Than 1.4 Million in 11 States
Based on a model used by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the map shows coastal areas likely to have been inundated by the storm surge resulting from Hurricane Sandy, in relationship to residential population.
Mapping Vulnerable Populations to Support Disaster Preparedness
As demonstrated by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, poverty is a critical factor in the vulnerability of populations to natural hazards.
Rainfall and Human Vulnerability in the Context of Climate Change
The impact of climate variability on predominantly rain-fed agrarian economies can be seen in Tanzania, where GDP is closely tied to variations in rainfall.
The Intersection of Population and Elevation Examined
This map shows the estimated number of people in 2010 living at different elevation levels across several Southern Asian countries. The database it’s taken from lets users without specialized geospatial training or software compare populations in various environmental contexts in different countries.
