March 25, 2008

The creation and significance of subnational infant mortality data developed by CIESIN are the focus of a new article published in the journal Population, Space, and Place. Authored by former CIESIN staff Adam Storeygard and Deborah Balk, with CIESIN deputy director, Marc Levy, and Glenn Deane, "The Global Distribution of Infant Mortality: A Subnational Spatial View," explains how subnational measures of infant mortality can serve as a useful, spatially-precise indicator of poverty. Prior to the production of this data set, global poverty measures had been available only at the national level; increased spatial precision at the subnational level is especially helpful when examining interactions between poverty and factors that do not conform to national borders, such as climate zones, eco-regions, and natural hazard exposure. The article describes how the data set was produced, delineates its known strengths and weaknesses, and reports some spatial patterns that emerge, such as the relationship between coastal proximity and poverty rates. The subnational poverty data set was produced in 2004-2005 as a part of The Global Distribution of Poverty project, a joint effort of the World Bank, the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) operated by CIESIN. The data set has been used in a number of global assessment exercises, including the UN Millennium Development Project and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.

See: The Global Distribution of Infant Mortality (subscription only)
        The Global Distribution of Poverty Web site

March 29, 2008

CIESIN deputy director Marc Levy participated in a number of panels at the 2008 International Studies Association (ISA) meeting in San Francisco March 25-28. He chaired a panel on multilateral governance in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region, gave a presentation at a National Intelligence Council-sponsored panel on the challenges of policy-relevant interdisciplinary research, and participated in a roundtable discussion on new directions in water/conflict research. Prior to the ISA meeting, he attended a brainstorming session at the Pacific Institute in Oakland involving a number of groups working on water/conflict issues. 

See: 2008 ISA Convention

Date: March 17, 2008

CIESIN has released an updated version of The Human Footprint, a data set that aims to measure the extent of human influence on the Earth's surface. First produced in 2002 by CIESIN with the Wildlife Conservation Society, this new version of The Human Footprint uses updated data on human population density, land transformation, human access, electrical power infrastructure, and settlements. Urban boundaries are drawn from CIESIN's urban population data (Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project (GRUMP)), which is more recent (circa 2000) and is also a better representation of urban boundaries than what was used in the first version. The population density data (Global Population of the World (GPWv3)), produced by the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) operated by CIESIN, also have a number of improvements over the data used in the earlier version. The roads data are more complete, particularly concerning roads in Africa and Latin America; a greater number of navigable rivers is included; and more extensive land cover data are used.
Data available for download include the Human Influence Index, Human Footprint, and the Last of the Wild data sets.

Web site

April 10, 2008

A workshop to further plan the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Biodiversity Observation Network (BON) was held in Berlin/Potsdam April 8-10 and attended by Alex de Sherbinin, Deputy Manager of SEDAC. GEO-BON is envisioned as an open-access data resource for the best available global biodiversity data, with accompanying tools and resources. Organized by DIVERSITAS, NASA, and the GEO Secretariat, the workshop was hosted and co-sponsored locally by BMBF (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany).The meeting included a mix of plenary sessions and working groups aimed at soliciting inputs from the wider biodiversity community and identifying the first action items of a plan.

It is anticipated that GEO-BON will be one element of GEOSS, the Global Earth Observation System of Systems, which aims to work with, and build upon, existing national, regional, and international systems to provide Earth observations as a resource for vital information for society. CIESIN is contributing actively to the development of GEOSS, in collaboration with NASA, the Open Geospatial Consortium, the Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) and the World Data Center (WDC) Panel of the International Council for Science, and other groups.

See: GEO-BON
        GEO

April 12, 2008

The intersection of security and environment issues was the focus of two talks given in Europe recently by CIESIN deputy director Marc Levy. In Athens April 9 Levy addressed an audience of forty military and diplomatic officials from the Middle East, South Asia, and neighboring countries on "Assessing Security Threats from Natural Disasters and Climate Change." The presentation was part of a conference of the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies. In Geneva April 11 he gave a talk, "Measuring Environment-Security Linkages: The Evolution of the State of the Art," held at the UN's International Environment House (IEH). Levy was also part of extensive meetings with the UN Environment Programme Post-Conflict and Disaster Management Branch (PCDMB) to explore options for implementing a new collaborative arrangement with the Earth Institute at Columbia university.

See: Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies
        PCDMB