SEDAC News

Art-Science Collaboration Continues During Informal Visit

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 04:00:00 GMT

Lars Jan, founding artistic director of Early Morning Opera, visited CIESIN in Palisades, New York June 4 to continue collaborative discussions started at the “Art and Science Dating Game,” which took place in March at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Jan met again with CIESIN director Robert Chen as well as with other CIESIN and Earth Institute staff members to examine how various types of scientific data could be woven into Jan's new performance project, Holoscenes. Holoscenes is an ambitious effort to use water as a medium of expression about human-climate interactions on multiple time and space scales.

Jan gave an informal brown bag talk about his work to CIESIN and other staff at the Lamont campus. He was accompanied by Rasu Jilani, director of community programs at Mapp International Productions, which is producing Holoscenes. This art-science collaboration was facilitated by PositiveFeedback, an initiative of the Earth Institute, the Center for Creative Research at New York University, and the Institute for Sustainable Cities of the City University of New York.

Holoscenes

New Digital Roads Data Set Characterizes Intercity Road Networks Around the World

Fri, 24 May 2013 04:00:00 GMT

CIESIN has released a digital global data set on intercity roads, the Global Roads Open Access Data Set, Version 1 (gROADSv1). Developed under the auspices of the Global Roads Data Development Task Group of the Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) of the International Council for Science, gROADSv1 combines the best available open access data on roads between human settlements into a global roads coverage consistent with the United Nations Spatial Data Infrastructure Transport (UNSDI-T) version 2 data model.

This first version of the gROADS data set is part of a continuing effort to address the need among professionals in the humanitarian response, development, transportation, biodiversity conservation, and allied fields for free and open, spatially accurate, and readily updateable data on roads in order to better understand issues such as market access, cost of transportation, and human pressures on the environment. Data on road networks connecting human settlements may be especially valuable when used in conjunction with remote sensing and other spatial data to improve decision making related to urbanization and rural development. gROADSv1 is being distributed by the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) operated by CIESIN, and represents an important step towards addressing the criteria established by the CODATA Task Group.

Global Roads Open Access Data Set, Version 1 (gROADSv1)

South Asia Urbanization and Transboundary River Basin Indicators the Focus of Two New Projects

Thu, 23 May 2013 04:00:00 GMT

CIESIN has recently begun work on a new project funded by the World Bank to use night-time lights data to analyze growth patterns of South Asian cities over time. Cities in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives with populations greater than 100,000 in the year 2000 have been mapped at two points in time, 1999 and 2010, and patterns of change in urban extent over the decade are being analyzed.

CIESIN has also joined an international team led by the UNEP-DHI Center for Water and Environment that is developing an assessment of transboundary river basins as part of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Transboundary Water Assessment Program (TWAP). The overall purpose of the TWAP is to carry out a global comparison of approximately 200 transboundary river basins in order to improve understanding and management of current and future risks to both society and ecosystems at the river basin scale. The transboundary river basins component aims to develop quantitative indicators on a variety of dimensions, including water quantity, water quality, ecosystems, governance, and socioeconomic trends, for use by the GEF and other stakeholders. CIESIN′s role is to create indicators of economic activity, socioeconomic well-being, vulnerability to natural disasters, and dependence on water resources. Other team members include the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN); Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI); the Center for Environmental Systems Research (CESR) at the University of Kassel, Germany; the City University of New York (CUNY); and the Delta Alliance.

Population Estimation Map Client Now Available for Mobile Devices

Wed, 22 May 2013 04:00:00 GMT

The NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) operated by CIESIN has released an update of its Population Estimation Service Map Client that now supports mobile devices such as tablets and smart phones. The new client uses version 3 of the Google Maps API to provide a user-friendly query interface to the SEDAC Population Estimation Service (PES), which is a standards-based Web service that provides an estimate of total 2005 population for a specific area of interest. The population estimates are based on the SEDAC Gridded Population of the World version 3 (GPWv3) data set. The new map client auto-detects screen size and automatically adjusts fonts and presentation to fit the device. Users are also now able to modify an existing polygon in order to refine their query, and to search for locations by name.

Data Needs for Understanding Urbanization and for Developing Climate Indicators Examined in Washington DC Meeting

Fri, 10 May 2013 04:00:00 GMT

How remote sensing data from the NASA Earth observation satellites can be used in conjunction with socioeconomic data to improve assessment of urbanization patterns and trends was one of two main topics addressed in a technical interchange meeting organized by SEDAC, the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center operated by CIESIN, May 8–9 in Washington, D.C. The second topic was the potential role of NASA data centers like SEDAC in supporting the development of a system of indicators for the U.S. National Climate Assessment (NCA), a Congressionally-mandated assessment of climate change and its impacts in the United States.

As part of the meeting, two parallel breakout sessions were held with members from the SEDAC User Working Group (UWG) and the UWG of the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC), to take advantage of their combined expertise and understanding of remote sensing and socioeconomic data. Experts from NASA, the NCA, other NASA data centers, and the World Bank also participated in person and by teleconference. Later in the meeting, SEDAC manager Robert Chen, deputy manager Alex de Sherbinin, and lead project scientist Marc Levy briefed the SEDAC UWG on recent activities and progress, including improvements to the SEDAC Web site and the expanding range of scientific citations of SEDAC data.

The SEDAC UWG is chaired by Molly Macauley of Resources for the Future. The UWG provides strategic advice and guidance to SEDAC and NASA and reviews SEDAC data development and dissemination plans.

New Online Resource Supports Learning About Scientific Data Management Practices

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 04:00:00 GMT

CIESIN senior digital archivist Robert Downs created seven modules for the online learning resource, Data Management for Scientists Short Course, which was developed as a collaborative effort of the ESIP Commons, the knowledge repository of the Federation of the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP). The short course aims to improve data management practices of scientists and data management professionals. Modules developed by Downs include Providing Access to Your Data: Access Mechanisms,” “Providing Access to Your Data: Determining Your Audience,” “Providing Access to Your Data: Rights,” “Responsible Data Use: Data Restrictions,” “Working with Your Archive: Broadening Your User Community,” “Providing Access to Your Data: Tracking Data Usage,” and “Providing Access to Your Data: Handling Sensitive Data.” All of the modules in the short course are freely available for use under a Creative Commons Attribution License, and may be used individually or combined to support instruction and learning on data management, dissemination, stewardship, and related issues.

ESIP Commons Data Management Short Course

CIESIN Represented at Annual Population and Geography Conferences

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 04:00:00 GMT

CIESIN staff members participated in two recent scientific conferences, the annual meetings of the Population Association of America (PAA) and the Association of American Geographers (AAG). Associate research scientist Susana Adamo organized two sessions at the PAA, held in New Orleans April 11–13. The first session, in which she served as the discussant, focused on urbanization and climate change. Presenters included former CIESIN scientist Deborah Balk of the CUNY Institute for Demographic Research. The second session, which Adamo chaired, addressed the demographic dimensions of climate change and included presenters from the U.S., Burkina Faso, and Ghana. More than 2,000 demographers, sociologists, economists, public health professionals, and other population experts attended the conference.

At the AAG annual meeting in Los Angeles April 9–13, geographic information specialist Tricia Chai-Onn staffed the NASA booth, helping to increase awareness and understanding of NASA Earth science data and services, including those offered by the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) operated by CIESIN. The AAG meeting attracts more than 5,000 geographers, Geographic Information System specialists, environmental scientists, and other scholars from around the world, providing an excellent opportunity to interact directly with SEDAC users.

Students from France Begin Spring Internships at CIESIN

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 04:00:00 GMT

CIESIN welcomed three interns April 16 from the École Polytechnique in Paris: Guillem Bardy, Juliette Mansard, and Sarah Le Net. Bardy is majoring in environmental sciences and is working with senior research associate Alex de Sherbinin to study flood resilience in New York City, Mumbai, and Ho Chi Minh City. Mansard, also an environmental sciences major, is working with associate director for geospatial applications, Mark Becker, on a new project to develop a decision support system on flood hazards for the lower Hudson River Valley. Le Net is majoring in renewable energies and civil engineering and is collaborating with information scientist Xiaoshi Xing to retrieve and analyze sulphur dioxide emissions data by region and by country for the period 1850 to 1969. All three interns are third-year students enrolled in a four-year program at École Polytechnique that leads to the equivalent of a U.S. masters degree. This is the sixth year that CIESIN has hosted three-month internships arranged through the Alliance program, a joint venture between Columbia University, École Polytechnique, Sciences Po, and the Université de Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne.

Alliance Program

Environmental Indicators Examined for Policy and Management Uses

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 04:00:00 GMT

SEDAC has a long history of disseminating sustainability indicator data, including the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI), and the Compendium of Environmental Sustainability Indicators (CESIC). These indicators have generally been developed in a partnership between CIESIN and the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy (YCELP). Now, in a new report, CIESIN and YCELP assess the use of indicators in policy and management contexts. The report, Indicators in Practice: How Environmental Indicators Are Being Used in Policy and Management Contexts, identifies three potential applications for indicators: use by policymakers to help choose a course of action; broad, conceptual use of indicators to frame an issue for society; and a political role in helping make a case for or against a particular policy action.

CIESIN senior research associate Alex de Sherbinin was lead author of the report, written with deputy director Marc Levy and researchers Aaron Reuben and Laura Johnson from YCELP and the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. The study will continue to track the evolving uses and impacts of environmental indicators, adding new case studies as they are produced to the Indicator Case Studies Web site.

Expert Group Aims to Inform Sustainable Development Policymaking

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 04:00:00 GMT

CIESIN deputy director Marc Levy and associate research scientist Susana Adamo participated in an Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on Science and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) held March 20-21 at United Nations headquarters in New York City. Adamo chaired a portion of the meeting, and Levy served as rapporteur for one of the two break-out groups. Organized by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) in partnership with the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the International Social Science Council (ISSC), the purpose of the meeting was to assess how science can best inform the SDG process and provide guidance to the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals (OWG). The OWG is a body of the UN General Assembly charged with developing proposals for the SDGs, which are expected to guide international development efforts after 2015.