Environmental Sustainability

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Tabular Data

2006 Environmental Performance Index (EPI)

The Pilot 2006 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) centers on two broad environmental protection objectives: (1) reducing environmental stresses on human health, and (2) promoting ecosystem vitality and sound natural resource management. Environmental health and ecosystem vitality are gauged using sixteen indicators tracked in six policy categories: Environmental Health, Air Quality, Water Resources, Productive Natural Resources, Biodiversity and Habitat, and Sustainable Energy. The Pilot 2006 EPI utilizes a proximity-to-target methodology focused on a core set of environmental outcomes linked to policy goals.

2005 Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI)

The fourth edition of this widely acclaimed internationally comparative index, the 2005 ESI assesses the relative sustainability of 146 countries across multiple dimensions. The ESI Web site provides access to the 2005 ESI report and data, as well as an archive of earlier versions.

Compendium of Environmental Sustainability Indicator Collections

This tabular data set represents a compendium of data for 238 countries from four major environmental sustainability indicator efforts: the 2006 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), the 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI), the 2004 Environmental Vulnerability Index (EVI), the Rio to Johannesburg Dashboard of Sustainable Development Indicators, and the Wellbeing of Nations. The data set is distributed as a large Excel spreadsheet together with accompanying metadata in MS Access and PDF format. 

Natural Resource Management Index (NRMI)

This index was developed for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a development assistance arm of the U.S. government. It comprises four indicators: eco-region protection, access to improved water sources, access to improved sanitation, and child mortality.

Population, Landscape, and Climate Estimates (PLACE)

This tabular data set permits easy comparisons across countries on such measures as the number of persons living within 100 kilometers of a coast, the percent of territory above 2,000 meters, or the number of persons living within different climatic zones or population density gradients. The data set includes national-level estimates of population size and land area in the following thematic areas: biome, climate, coastal proximity, elevation, population density.

Signatures of Sustainability

This tabular data set provides measures of sustainability for 275 metropolitan areas in the United States. The data set was compiled as part of dissertation research by Dr. Andrew Schiller (PhD, May 2001, Department of Geography, Clark University).

Geospatial Data

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Downscaled Population and Income Data from 1990 to 2100

Country-level population and gross domestic product (GDP) data and downscaled (subnational) projections based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) SRES A1, A2, B1, and B2 marker scenarios, 1990-2100. The GDP projections represent GDP by grid cell based on an allocation of projected per capita income to projected population distribution data from the Gridded Population of the World (GPW), see below.

Gridded Population of the World and Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project

Gridded Population of the World (GPWv3) is the third edition of a large-scale data product that demonstrates the spatial distribution of human populations across the globe. The purpose of the GPW project is to provide a spatially disaggregated population layer that is compatible with datasets from social, economic, and earth science fields. The Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project (GRUMP) provides a new suite of data products that add urban-rural specification to the Gridded Population of the World. This project was developed out of a need for researchers to be able to distinguish population spatially by urban and rural areas.

Human Appropriation of Net Primary Productivity (HANPP)
The HANPP Web site describes global spatial data sets used to analyze global patterns in human consumption of net primary productivity (NPP). Data sets include a satellite-derived quarter-degree NPP grid; an intermediate model of human appropriation of NPP (low and high variants of HANPP were also produced but are not distributed here); and the HANPP as a percent of NPP. The spatial data are provided in raster GRID and compressed GeoTIFF formats. Raster cell sizes are one-quarter degree.

Human Footprint and Last of the Wild

The Human Footprint represents the degree of human impact on the environment on a 1-kilometer global grid. The Last of the Wild represents the inverse of the Human Footprint—the biomes that are still relatively intact owing to their distance from major population centers and infrastructure.

Natural Disaster Hotspots: A Global Risk Analysis

The study, Natural Disaster Hotspots: A Global Risk Analysis, published by the World Bank, produced a set of global geospatial data on six major natural hazards and associated risks of mortality and economic loss.