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| CIESIN Poverty Mapping Workshop Offers Exploration of Spatial Aspects of Well-Being | ||
December 20, 2007 CIESIN research associate Maria Muñiz led the two-hour mapping workshop, which provided hands-on instruction in integrating spatial poverty data with earth science data to explore connections. Using data from CIESIN’s Global Poverty Mapping Project and Columbia’s Center for Hazards and Risk Research, participants examined the poor’s exposure and vulnerability to multiple hazards, and utilized GIS software in exercises to determine whether there was a relationship between the distribution of poor populations and areas of high hazard impacts. The poverty mapping workshops were requested by Brian Fulfrost, GIS coordinator and lecturer at UCSC and project manager for the UC Atlas of Global Inequality. “The workshop was accessible but also technologically sophisticated enough to effectively communicate how to use common GIS-based tools (map algebra, zonal analysis) to understand the spatial relationships between poverty and other environmental indicators,” Fulfrost said. Marc Levy, CIESIN deputy director, also spoke at the Conference on recent progress in poverty mapping and future challenges, including examples of using poverty maps to better understand patterns of vulnerability to climate change and other global risks. Online maps, figures, and interactive utilities are available now on the Conference Web site; online presentations and a print atlas based on the conference will be published. |
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| CIESIN Staff Active at 2007 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting | ||
| December 14, 2007 CIESIN was well-represented at the 2007 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco, which took place December 10–14. Staff participated in a NASA exhibit and led or contributed to six papers. CIESIN deputy director Marc Levy presented a paper on the use of remote sensing to support international environmental treaties related to international conservation. Two presentations by geographic information specialist Greg Yetman were on the agenda, one on CIESIN’s collaborative work on polar data access and visualization and a second on its progress in providing integration of socioeconomic and Earth science data through open Web mapping services. A poster paper on the use of citation metrics to assess the scientific impact of socioeconomic and earth science data was presented by SEDAC’s User Services manager, Joe Schumacher. He also helped train users on data access and use at the NASA exhibit. In addition, CIESIN senior digital archivist Robert Downs contributed to a paper on measurement of the reusability of software led by staff from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Kerstin Lehnert of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory presented a paper on community-based development of standards for geochemical and geochronological data, to which CIESIN Information Technology staff members Sri Vinay, Branko Djapic, and Brian Falk contributed as co-authors. See: AGU Fall Meeting |
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| Interactive Mapping Tool to Support HIV/AIDS Programs | ||
| December 10, 2007 Integration of an online interactive mapping tool into information management systems is the aim of a new partnership between CIESIN and the International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs (ICAP) at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. The online tool will locate more than 200 clinics within a map containing a rich set of environmental and socioeconomic data layers. The tool will also tap into a database of quarterly clinic reports, enabling users to visualize the clinics by age, gender profiles, or any one of nearly one hundred different variables tracked in the reports. See: ICAP |
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| New Spatial Data Catalog is Launched | ||
December 7, 2007 CIESIN is providing server space and software support for the Columbia University (CU) Spatial Data Catalog, a new resource for identifying and locating Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-compatible data sets from Columbia’s spatial data collections.
The CU Spatial Data Catalog is the primary access point to Columbia University’s growing electronic spatial data collection. The Catalog allows users in the University community easier access to geospatial data, bringing together data from many sources and supporting remote access from home or in the field. The CU Spatial Data Catalog, launched by the University’s Electronic Data Services (EDS), was developed by partners from the University's GIS working group: Columbia University Libraries (CUL), Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP), Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP), and Columbia University Information Technology (CUIT). Currently, the Catalog contains detailed records describing more than 1000 individual layers, including information from throughout the globe and ready for use in GIS. Full record keyword searches are possible, with additional advanced searching options. Thumbnail images for each layer visually summarize each data set. |
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| Personnel Changes at CIESIN | ||
November 30, 2007 |
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| Analysis of Natural and Conflict-Related Hazards in Asia Launched | ||
| November 27, 2007 A new project on Risk Assessment and Mitigation Measures for Natural and Conflict-Related Hazards in the Asian Region has been initiated by the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) with active participation by CIESIN and the Center for Hazards and Risk Research (CHRR). Supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the project involves working with the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to address information needs related to the risks of different natural hazards and civil conflict in the Asian region. Other participants in the project include the Peace Research Institute of Oslo (PRIO) and the University of Geneva. See: Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) |
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| Millennium Challenge Corporation Adds CIESIN-Produced Index to 2008 ‘Scorecard’ | ||
November 26, 2007 |
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| Sustainability Science, Hazards Issues Explored in Context of Global Change | ||
| November 14, 2007 Recent presentations by CIESIN deputy director Marc Levy examined different issues against a backdrop of global change. His lecture, “Assessing Threats from Natural Disasters and Climate Change,” focused on the security implications of hazards in the context of global change, and the role of the military sector in responding to such challenges. The lecture was given as part of an Executive Seminar at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies in Washington DC on November 13. Seminar participants were military and civilian officials from 20 countries in the Middle East and south Asia. Levy also participated in an International Workshop on Designing Global Information Commons for Innovation in Frontier Sciences, co-organized by the Science Council of Japan and the US National Academy of Sciences. His presentation at the workshop, held November 8–10 in Tokyo, explored the role of an information commons for sustainability science. See: Assessing Threats from Natural Disasters (5.96 MB PDF) Designing an Information Commons (2.50 MB PDF) |
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| ENTRI Releases Conference of Party Decision Search Tool | ||
November 8, 2007
In response to the need to keep track of the many decision documents approved by the Parties to multilateral environmental agreements, the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) has produced a Conference of Party (COP) Decision Search Tool as an add-on to its Environmental Treaties and Resource Indicators (ENTRI) project. Powered by a Google Search Appliance, the tool includes controlled “metadata” (coding of each decision document) to enable powerful advanced searches by date, COP number, or title of document. All decision documents are harvested and converted to portable document format (PDF) for consistency, but for reference purposes the original universal resource locator (URL) is listed. The collection includes more than 2,100 decision documents for the following agreements: Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (Basel), Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar), UN Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD), UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Kyoto, 1997), Vienna Convention to Protect the Ozone Layer (Vienna), and the Montreal Protocol of the Vienna Convention (Montreal). Users may search across all ten agreements or limit the search to selected subsets. |
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| Advisory Group Meets at the World Bank | ||
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October 30, 2007 The User Working Group (UWG) of the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) held its second meeting of the year at the headquarters of the World Bank in Washington DC on October 29–30. Speakers from NASA, the National Science Foundation, the Open Geospatial Consortium, the National Research Council, and the World Bank briefed UWG members on a range of issues important to SEDAC’s development and ability to address key interdisciplinary data needs. CIESIN director and SEDAC manager, Robert Chen, reported on recent SEDAC accomplishments, including SEDAC'’s latest contributions to activities of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and its ongoing efforts to support the development of the Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS). Chaired by Prof. Harlan Onsrud of the University of Maine, the UWG includes members from a wide range of scientific disciplines, academic and government institutions, and user communities. The UWG advises SEDAC on user needs and priorities, strategic directions, and data acquisition and dissemination. See: SEDAC UWG |
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| CIESIN Contributes to Global Environmental Outlook | ||
| October 26, 2007 |
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| Transatlantic Cooperation the Focus of DC Symposium | ||
| October 25, 2007 CIESIN director Robert Chen and deputy director Marc Levy participated in Transatlantic Science Week 2007: Climate Action, an annual symposium organized by the Norwegian Embassy, the Research Council of Norway, and the Carnegie Institution in Washington DC October 22–24. Levy co-chaired a session on Climate Change and Conflict with Halvard Buhaug of the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO) and presented a paper on “Drought as a Contributor to Political Conflict: Empirical Evidence.” For a session on Natural Hazards in a Changing Climate, Chen and Levy presented papers on “Risk Identification and the Spatial Distribution of Natural Disaster Hotspots in a Changing Climate” and “Estimating Exposure to Future Sea-Level Rise Risks Worldwide,” respectively. The session was organized and chaired by Oddvar Kjekstad of the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI), which is actively collaborating with CIESIN and the Center for Hazards and Risk Research on research on disaster risk management. See: Transatlantic Science Week |
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| CIESIN Leads Mapping Workshop in China | ||
October 19, 2007
At the invitation of the China Fiscal Association, P.R. China, CIESIN organized a workshop October 8–12 on mapping and visualization of financial data. Held in Beijing and Shanghai, the interdisciplinary workshop was led by CIESIN staff members Mark Becker, associate director of the Geospatial Applications division; Xiaoshi Xing, information scientist in the Information Sciences division; and Maria Muñiz, research associate in the Science Applications division. The workshop included members of the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS). Topics also included a presentation on CIESIN’s poverty mapping work and Internet mapping tools; and an exploration of new opportunities for data sharing. |
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| Digital Preservation Issues Discussed | ||
| October 12, 2007 Munich and Beijing were the venues recently for discussion of digital preservation issues. A poster paper, “Cooperative Management of a Long-Term Archive of Heterogeneous Scientific Data,” was presented at the PV2007 Conference, “Ensuring the Long-Term Preservation and Value Adding to Scientific and Technical Data,” held October 9–11 in Munich, Germany. CIESIN senior digital archivist Robert R. Downs authored the paper with CIESIN director Robert Chen; associate director of Information Sciences W. Christopher Lenhardt; Walter Bourne, Director of Technology Initiatives at the Columbia University Libraries; and David Millman, Senior Director of Systems Integration at Columbia University Information Technology (CUIT). John Moses of the Earth Science Data & Information System Project (ESDIS) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center presented the poster on behalf of the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) hosted by CIESIN. In Beijing, former CIESIN Visiting Scholar Zhu Zhongming of the Lanzhou Branch of the National Science Library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences presented a joint paper in a parallel session on institutional repositories at the International Conference on Digital Preservation (iPRES 2007) October 11. The paper, “New Partnerships for Scientific Data Preservation and Publication Systems,” was co-authored with Chen, Downs, Lenhardt, and CIESIN information scientist Xiaoshi Xing. See: PV2007 Conference iPRES 2007 |
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| New Population and Land Area Data Set Released | ||
| October 12, 2007 Version two of the Population, Landscape, and Climate Estimates data set, PLACE II, has been released as part of SEDAC’s National Aggregates of Geospatial Data Collection. The aim is to provide country-level measures of spatial characteristics of 228 nations to researchers for whom national aggregates are more useful than GIS data. PLACE II estimates the number of people (head counts and percentages) and the land area (square kilometers and percentages) represented within each class of a number of demographic, physical, biological, and climatic variables for each country around the world, for the years 1990 and 2000. These variables include biomes, climate zones, coastal proximity zones, elevation zones, and population density zones. The full data array of nearly 300 variables, tabulated by country, is available for download in Excel spreadsheet format, together with supporting documentation. The PLACE II map collection displays examples of input variables and country dynamics via more than 40 maps at global, continental, and detailed scales. See: PLACE II |
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| Sustainable Development and Leadership Challenges Discussed in Berlin | ||
| October 10, 2007 CIESIN deputy director Marc Levy gave a keynote talk at a symposium held in Berlin October 8–9 to honor Martin Jänicke, retired director of the Environmental Policy Research Unit of the Free University of Berlin. The conference, "Smart Regulation for Global Competition—is Europe’s Competitive Edge Green?" brought together a number of scholars to address to address questions inspired by Jänicke's work on ecological modernization. Levy's talk, “Sustainable Development and Challenges of Leadership,” presented evidence showing that leadership on global environmental policy matters has shifted markedly from the United States to Europe, and argued that differences in political structures account for the change. He noted, however, that the deepening of the sustainable development agenda, including the entry of climate change as a mainstream security issue, creates leadership challenges for which current capabilities are not yet adequate either in the U.S. or in Europe. |
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| Need for New Global Roads Data Examined | ||
October 3, 2007 |
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| Visiting Scholar to Research Land Use/Land Cover Change | ||
October 2, 2007 |
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| CIESIN to Showcase Sea-Level Rise Exhibit, Poverty Maps at Lamont Annual Open House | ||
| October 1, 2007 |
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| Meeting Explores Developments Related to Marine Geological Samples | ||
| September 27, 2007 See: Meeting Info |
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| Ozone Depletion Symposium Held in Athens | ||
| September 27, 2007 Robert Worrest, CIESIN associate director for Washington Operations, was an invited speaker at the Scientific Symposium on the 20th Anniversary of the Montreal Protocol. Held in Athens, Greece September 23–26, the symposium, “Ozone Depletion: From its Discovery to Envisat and Aura,” brought together distinguished scientists, policy makers, industry people, and non-governmental organizations who have contributed to the protection of the ozone layer. Worrest is a winner of the UNEP Global Ozone Award and is on detail with the U.S. Geological Survey as chief scientist for the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII), which oversees CIESIN’s Northeast Information Node (NBII-NIN). See: Scientific Symposium on the 20th Anniversary of the Montreal Protocol |
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| CIESIN Participates in Climate Change Workshop at OGC Meeting | ||
| September 22, 2007 CIESIN Geographic information specialist Greg Yetman attended a meeting, “The User and the GEOSS Architecture XVI,” in Boulder, Colorado September 17–21. Yetman demonstrated interoperable CIESIN data and services in a GEOSS workshop addressing the workshop's theme, “Regional Decisions for Climate Change.” The meeting, which was sponsored by the OGC Network, was also attended by CIESIN programmer Brian Falk. |
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| Expert Group Develops Plans for New Climate Change Scenarios | ||
| September 22, 2007 The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) held a meeting, “New Scenarios for Analysis of Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Climate Change, Impacts, and Response Strategies,” in Noordwijkerhout, the Netherlands September 19–21. The IPCC hopes to catalyze the development of new scenarios of future socioeconomic development and associated greenhouse gas emissions and land use change that in turn drive studies of climate change and associated impacts, adaptation, and mitigation. Richard Moss of the UN Foundation and a member of SEDAC’s User Working Group co-chaired the Steering Committee for the meeting. CIESIN director Robert Chen was one of the invited participants, addressing the need for better integration of mitigation and adaptation studies and better accessibility and management of scenario data. See: IPCC Working Group III |
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| Russian Center Celebrates 50th Anniversary of International Geophysical Year | ||
September 18, 2007 Photo, left to right: Academician Mikhail Zgurovsky, Rector, National Technical University of Ukraine, Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, and member of CODATA Executive Committee;
Academician Alexander Gliko, Director of the Schmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth, Russian Academy of Sciences;
Prof. Alexei Gvishiani, Director of the Geophysical Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences and former CODATA Vice President;
Robert Chen, Director of CIESIN and CODATA Secretary General. |
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| Land Use/Land Cover Change Issues Explored at Meeting | ||
September 14, 2007
CIESIN was host September 13 to the first meeting of a newly awarded project, Land Use/Land Cover Change Issues in Latin America and the Caribbean. Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), the project takes a multi-disciplinary/multi-scale approach to evaluating how economic and demographic change is affecting land use and land cover change in Latin America and the Caribbean; and the implications of these changing patterns for socio-economic development and biodiversity conservation.
CIESIN deputy director Marc Levy and research associate Maria Muniz participated in the all-day meeting, joined by Mitch Aide (Co-PI), University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras; David Carr (Co-PI), University of California, Santa Barbara; Matthew Clark (Co-PI), Sonoma State University; and Ricardo Grau, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. |
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| NASA Surveys Its Earth Science Data Centers Users | ||
| September 6, 2007 |
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| PERN Cyberseminar: Focus on Sudano-Sahelian Zone | ||
| September 3, 2007 Following droughts in the Sahel during the early 1970s and 1980s, a raft of reports predicted a Malthusian collapse. Have these dire predictions been borne out, or have agricultural systems coped and adapted to growing population numbers despite climate variations? A cyberseminar, “Population-Development-Environment Linkages in the Sudano-Sahelian Zone of West Africa,” addresses these questions and more. Taking place September 3-14, the online seminar is co-sponsored by CIESIN’s Population-Environment Research Network (PERN) and the Programme for Interactions between Population, Development, and Environment (PRIPODE). The PERN cyberseminars are meant to provide a forum for scientists from the social and natural sciences to debate and discuss the most current population-environment research topics. Past topics have included population and deforestation, international migration and the environment, population-consumption-environment linkages, and urban spatial expansion. CIESIN hosts PERN; its international sponsors are the International Human Dimensions Programme and the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population. See: Population-Environment Research Network |
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| CIESIN Aids in First-Ever Biological Snapshot of Jamaica Bay | ||
August 31, 2007 The Web site of the Jamaica Bay Research and Management Information Network (JBRMIN), operated by CIESIN’s National Biological Information Infrastructure–Northeast Information Node program (NBII-NIN), has been chosen as the official Web site for the Jamaica Bay BioBlitz. The “BioBlitz,” an intensive 24-hour cataloging of the diversity of organisms present in the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, bordering Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island, New York, will be held from 3 p.m. September 7 through 3 p.m. September 8, 2007. The event, which is taking place for the first time, is sponsored by Queens College, the City University of New York (CUNY), the National Park Service, and the Jamaica Bay Institute. The JBRMIN Web site will handle online registration, as well as disseminate permissions forms, agendas, schedules, data sheets, programs, and press releases to participants and the public. JBRMIN is also playing a major role in tracking the progress of the Jamaica Bay Watershed Protection Plan. Local legislation passed in 2005 requires the New York City Department of Environmental Protection to generate a comprehensive plan to restore and maintain Jamaica Bay’s water quality and ecological integrity. These ongoing activities of JBRMIN, along with the Jamaica Bay BioBlitz, are part of an attempt to advance awareness of the rich variety of life forms in an urban park setting and the role human development plays in their existence. |
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| GEF Land Degradation Workshop Attended by CIESIN | ||
| August 30, 2007 Senior staff associate Alex de Sherbinin participated in the First Expert Workshop for the KM: Land Initiative (on Knowledge Management for the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) Land Degradation Focal Area), held in Iceland August 28–30. His presentation was on the use of aggregate sustainability indicators. The KM: Land Initiative is intended to lay the foundations for a comprehensive system to track progress across the Land Degradation Focal Area and its portfolio of projects. Participants in the workshop included representatives of the GEF Secretariat, United Nations Development Program, World Bank, and other international organizations. See: First Expert Workshop (231 KB PDF) |
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| Fulbright Scholar to Study Human-Environment Interactions while at CIESIN | ||
August 21, 2007 |
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| SEDAC Mapping Client Demo at IPY GeoNorth | ||
| August 20, 2007 |
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| Has Climate Change Contributed to the Darfur Conflict? | ||
August 15, 2007 Levy co-leads a project,“Hydrology and Social Interactions: A Focus on Conflict in Africa,”
with the University of New Hampshire, supported by the Human and Social Dynamics Program of the National Science Foundation. |
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| Hydrology at a Crossroads: New Project To Synthesize Research | ||
| August 9, 2007 |
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| Earth’s Plant Productivity, Measured and Mapped | ||
August 1, 2007 Among the findings are that urban areas, with dense populations, consume far more primary production than local ecosystems can produce. Another, more surprising, finding is that technology improvements can greatly reduce the amount of waste in agricultural production. |
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| NASA Workshop Explores Google Earth Capability | ||
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August 1, 2007 CIESIN geographic information systems specialist Greg Yetman participated in a workshop, “NASA Applications for Google Earth,” held July 30–31 at NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California. Yetman gave an overview of the global environmental and socioeconomic data from CIESIN's Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) that are now accessible to users of Google Earth, the geographic information visualization software developed by Google, Inc. The two-day workshop included presentations from scientists, engineers, and managers engaged in exploring the potential of Google Earth as an outreach and data visualization tool, as well as related technical and policy discussions. See: Workshop |
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| Implications of Climate Change for Hazards Community | ||
| July 16, 2007 Senior staff associate Alex de Sherbinin, CIESIN director Robert Chen, and deputy director Marc Levy are co-authors of the July 2007 “On the Line” column in the Natural Hazards Observer. The column, “What Does Climate Change Mean for the Hazards Community?,” looks at the hazards implications of the most recent IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Working Group report on climate change impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. The Natural Hazards Observer is the bimonthly periodical of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder. See: Natural Hazards Observer |
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| New World Data Center Portal Released | ||
July 12, 2007 A new state-of-the-art Web portal for the development, dissemination, and application of high-quality global environmental and socioeconomic data sets has now been released under the auspices of the CIESIN World Data Center (WDC) for Human Interactions in the Environment. Supported by SEDAC (Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center), the WDC portal provides leading-edge tools and easy access to global-scale data and associated information on key topics related to human-environment interactions, including population, climate, conservation, poverty, hazards, health, and sustainability. The site incorporates a new mapping tool that allows users to customize, save, and share maps based on distributed data sources for the user’s region and theme of interest. The portal also enables users to search for global data sets on particular topics more easily and to obtain detailed information about the advantages, disadvantages, and past uses of global data sets available from different sources. Also available through the portal are a map gallery, customized links to data visualization tools such as Google Earth and NASA’s World Wind, and other resources useful to global data users. The World Data Center system of the International Council for Science (ICSU) was established after the International Geophysical year in 1957–58 to guarantee access to solar, geophysical, and related environmental data. The system currently encompasses 51 data centers in twelve countries. The CIESIN WDC, established in 1995, was the first WDC to focus on data at the intersection of the natural and social sciences. See: CIESIN World Data Center for Human Interactions in the Environment |
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| CIESIN Welcomes Visiting Scientist in Geoinformatics | ||
July 6, 2007 See: Personal homepage |
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| Human Vulnerability to Global Change Explored in GIS Context | ||
June 29, 2007 The UCGIS Summer Assembly (University Consortium for Geographic Information Science) was held June 27–28 in Yellowstone, Wyoming. The Assembly featured a plenary talk given by CIESIN deputy director Marc Levy, “Identifying Patterns of Human Vulnerability to Global Change through Integration of Geographic Databases.” The UCGIS is
a consortium of three institutions, the University of California at Santa Barbara; the State University of New York at Buffalo; and the University of Maine. It aims, among other goals, to serve as an effective, unified voice for the geographic information science (GIS) research community. |
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| DC Workshop Aims Towards Greater Understanding of Multi-Hazard Strategies | ||
June 28, 2007 |
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| CIESIN Part of UN Showcase at Annual ESRI User Conference | ||
| June 22, 2007 Members of CIESIN’s Geospatial Applications Division gave two presentations and participated in the showcase of United Nations projects at the 27th ESRI User Conference held in San Diego, CA June 18-22. Geographic information specialists Malanding Jaiteh and Greg Yetman staffed a booth during the opening reception that highlighted CIESIN’s Global Poverty Mapping Project and Millennium Development Project activities. Greg Yetman gave two presentations, the first on U.S. Census Grids data, as part of a session on raster-based methods in geodemographic analysis. The second presentation, given at a session on developing Web services with ESRI technologies, focused on combining poverty and precipitation data. CIESIN’s Gridded Population of the World (GPW) data were featured prominently at the conference: in the form of a large global map as part of ESRI president Jack Dangermond’s opening talk, and displayed in the exhibit hall as a fifteen-foot poster of the Millennium Development goals published by National Geographic. The ESRI User Conference is one of the largest GIS conferences in the world; attendance this year was estimated at more than 12,000. See: ESRI User Conference |
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| Regional Climate Change Impacts and Response Discussed in Fiji | ||
June 22, 2007
See: TGICA Regional Meeting Web site IPCC Data Distribution Centre |
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| Invasives Response Training Offered at Lamont June 23 | ||
June 18, 2007 A hands-on training session using Geographic Information System (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) technologies for early detection and rapid response to the invasive vine “mile-a-minute” will be held on Saturday, June 23, 2007 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm at the Lamont campus of Columbia University in Palisades, New York. The free-of-charge training is open to the public and is sponsored by the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve (HRNERR), the Hudson River Watershed Alliance (HRWA), and CIESIN’s National Biological Information Infrastructure Northeast Information Node (NBII-NIN). NBII-NIN is a collaborative program that aims to facilitate sharing biological information across the region. HRWA NBII-NIN |
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| CIESIN Co-sponsors PDE Dynamics Workshop Held in Nairobi | ||
June 14, 2007 See: PRIPODE Workshop |
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| GIS and Metadata Issues Explored at NEMO Meeting | ||
June 8, 2007 |
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| SEDAC User Working Group Welcomes New Members | ||
June 1, 2007 See: SEDAC UWG |
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| Authors Meet to Finalize Work on UNEP GEO-4 | ||
| May 25, 2007 |
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| Areas of Collaboration between Columbia and Chinese Academy of Sciences Explored | ||
May 22, 2007
See: Chinese Academy of Sciences |
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| Interactive Map Tool Offers Emissions Picture for the U.S. | ||
May 18, 2007 |
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| Social Science Data Management Experts Gather in Montreal | ||
| May 17, 2007 CIESIN senior digital archivist Robert R. Downs presented two CIESIN papers at the 2007 IASSIST (International Association for Social Science Information Service and Technology) Conference, held this year at McGill University in Montreal May 15–18. As one of the social science data management experts participating in the annual meeting, Downs presented “Appraisal and Selection of Scientific Data for the Long-Term Archive: A Case Study,” co-authored with Robert S. Chen and W. Christopher Lenhardt, and “Creative Commons and Data Dissemination at an Academic Data Center: Issues and Potential Benefits,” by W. Christopher Lenhardt, Downs, and Robert S. Chen. CIESIN is a “gold” sponsor of this year’s IASSIST, the theme of which is “Building Global Knowledge Communities with Open Data.” See: 2007 IASSIST |
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| Role of GIS in Environmental Health Discussed | ||
| May 16, 2007 The spring meeting of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Geospatial Working Group May 15–18 in Boston was the venue for a presentation by Mark Becker, associate director of geospatial applications at CIESIN. The presentation was entitled “GIS as a Tool for Collaboration, Data Sharing, and Decision Support: Investigating Arsenic Contamination of Groundwater in the Lower Hudson Valley.” Becker highlighted CIESIN’s work for the Earth Institute’s cross-disciplinary project, “Health Effects and Geochemistry of Arsenic and Manganese,” which is supported by the Superfund Basic Research Program of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). See: Health Effects.... |
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| Kiel, Germany Site of International Data Exchange Activities | ||
| May 11, 2007 |
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| World Data Centers Plan Future Directions | ||
| May 9, 2007 The directors of the World Data Centers (WDCs) of the International Council for Science (ICSU) met in Bremen, Germany on May 7–9, 2007 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the WDC system and plan for its future evolution. CIESIN director Bob Chen and associate director for information services Chris Lenhardt participated in the meeting, representing the CIESIN WDC on Human Interactions in the Environment. Established following the International Geophysical Year (IGY) in 1957–58, the WDCs manage and disseminate a variety of high quality data in support of the environmental and social sciences. Bob Chen gave a presentation on the Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA), which is another interdisciplinary committee of ICSU, and chaired a splinter group on the role of the WDCs in the Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS). See: WDC_Conference_2007 |
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| Government-University Collaboration Highlighted at NASA Science Archives Workshop | ||
| April 26, 2007 CIESIN director Bob Chen presented a paper, “Government-University Collaboration in Long-Term Archiving of Scientific Data,” in a workshop, “Science Archives in the 21st Century,” at the University of Maryland on April 25–26, 2007. Co-authored with CIESIN archivist Bob Downs and CIESIN associate director for information services Chris Lenhardt, the paper emphasizes the benefits of collaboration between government agencies and universities in providing long-term stewardship for science data. The paper, one of 15 selected for oral presentation at the workshop, describes recent experience establishing a long-term archive for the NASA-supported Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), working with the Columbia University Library system. See: Workshop information SEDAC Long-Term Archive |
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| CIESIN Participates in Annual AAG Meeting in San Francisco | ||
| April 20, 2007 Two CIESIN staff members participated in the 2007 Meeting of the AAG (Association of American Geographers) in San Francisco April 17–21. CIESIN director Bob Chen gave an invited paper, “Can Interdisciplinary Research Improve Natural Hazard Risk Management? The Case of the Global Natural Disaster Risk Hotspots Study,” as part of a special two-part session held April 18, “Boundary Science and the Challenges of Working in Pasteur’s Quadrant.” (The term “Pasteur’s Quadrant” was coined in 1997 by Don Stokes of Princeton University to refer to research activities that both advance scientific understanding and have real-world utility.) CIESIN User Services manager Joe Schumacher helped staff the NASA Earth Science booth at the meeting, distributing outreach materials and interacting with meeting participants on behalf of the NASA Distributed Active Archive Centers, including CIESIN’s Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). See: AAG Annual Meeting 2007 |
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| Climate and Conflict Discussed by Marc Levy in The New York Times | ||
| April 16, 2007 CIESIN deputy director Marc Levy is quoted in an article, “Global Warming Called Security Threat,” appearing in The New York Times on April 15, 2007. The article, written by Andrew Revkin and Timothy Williams, summarizes a report by the Center for Naval Analyses, “National Security and the Threat of Climate Change,” which highlights the potential for greater unrest and violence as the result of a changing climate. Marc comments on the link between drought and violent conflict, based on his ongoing research with the University of New Hampshire supported by the Human and Social Dynamics Program of the National Science Foundation. See: Times article |
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| CIESIN Hosts Invasives Information-Sharing Meeting | ||
| April 12, 2007 As part of its National Biological Information Infrastructure–Northeast Information Node program (NBII-NIN), CIESIN hosted a meeting for groups working on the early detection, mapping, and response to invasive species throughout New York, New Jersey, and the New England states. The meeting, held April 9 on the Lamont Campus of Columbia University, gave these groups an opportunity to share information on their programs and to work together on standardizing methodologies and database structures. A representative from the NBII Invasive Species Program gave a presentation on how the regional efforts to control invasive species fit into a nationwide program. The group will meet again in the fall to discuss progress and next steps. |
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| “How-to” Poverty Mapping Seminar Offered by CIESIN | ||
April 6, 2007 To register and for further information on the seminar, please contact Elyse at el2365@columbia.edu. |
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| Urban Dynamics Explored at Recent Population and Environment Workshop | ||
March 30, 2007 |
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| New Data Reveal Links between Urbanization and Coastal Risks | ||
March 28, 2007 See: Low Elevation Coastal Zone (LECZ) data and maps |
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| New Deputy Director for CIESIN: Marc Levy | ||
| March 23, 2007
See: bio |
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| GEOSS Data Policy Briefing Takes Place in Washington, DC | ||
March 23, 2007 The National Research Council in Washington, DC was the site of a lunchtime briefing by CIESIN director Bob Chen for The Alliance for Earth Observations. Hosted by the U.S. National Committee for CODATA on March 19, the briefing on “The GEO Data Sharing Challenge: Putting Principles into Practice” provided an update on Task DA-06-01, a key element of the 2007–2009 GEOSS work plan for the Group on Earth Observations (GEO). (GEOSS is the Global Earth Observation System of Systems, an international system being designed to ensure comprehensive and sustained Earth observations.) See: CODATA site for GEOSS |
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| Water and Conflict Issues Examined at Recent Presentation | ||
March 12, 2007 Marc is principal investigator of “Hydrology and Social Interactions: A Focus on Conflict in Africa,” funded by the National Science Foundation under its 2006 Human and Social Dynamics Program. The project is an interdisciplinary exploration of the impact of hydrologic anomalies on the incidence of civil war in Africa over the past three decades. The methodology utilizes integrated spatial time series data sets on both water resources and internal war. CIESIN co-leads the study with the Water Systems Analysis Group at the University of New Hampshire and is also collaborating with PRIO. See: presentation video |
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| Unique Study Contributes to Understanding of Consumption Issues | ||
March 9, 2007 See: HANPP |
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| Visiting Scientist and CIESIN To Explore Digital Archiving Issues | ||
March 1, 2007 |
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| CIESIN Begins Collaboration on an Integrated Approach to Disaster Assessment | ||
February 26, 2007 The collaborative project brings together the fields of physical science, demography, public health, and informatics to study vulnerability and disaster assessment. The core, innovative element of the research is that it enables the combining of spatially distributed demographic data with data from field surveys of disaster-affected populations. |
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| New Cyberinfrastructure Project, Web Site Announced | ||
| February 16, 2007 As part of the Earth Institute’s Cross-Cutting Initiative (CCI) program, CIESIN is leading a new project, Cyberinfrastructure for the Earth Institute (CI4EI). A Web site for this effort has now been established, and a series of kick-off meetings are being held. The project aims to identify cyberinfrastructure needs across the scientific and engineering communities of the EI and other interested Columbia units; and to identify and evaluate opportunities for addressing these needs. See: Cyberinfrastructure for the Earth Institute (CI4EI) |
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| Dr. Robert S. Chen Appointed as New CIESIN Director | ||
| February 1, 2007 After an extensive international search by an interdisciplinary committee, the Earth Institute at Columbia University has announced the appointment of Dr. Robert S. Chen as director of CIESIN, effective February 1, 2007. Dr. Chen, a geographer and senior research scientist with CIESIN, has served as interim director since May 2006. He had been deputy director since mid–1998, when CIESIN became a center within the Earth Institute. As CIESIN’s director, Dr. Chen leads an organization of more than 40 professional staff, including active research scientists, experienced data analysts, and experts in data management and information systems. CIESIN also regularly hosts postdoctoral fellows, visiting scientists, and students from around the world. |
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| SEDAC Enhances Information Gateway | ||
February 1, 2007 |
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| Earth Institute Director Jeffrey Sachs named 2007 AAG Honorary Geographer | ||
January 19, 2007 |
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| Government-Sponsored Climate and Security Linkages Workshop Attended by CIESIN | ||
| January 10, 2007 CIESIN's Marc Levy, associate director of Science Applications, participated as an invited expert in a workshop on climate-security linkages sponsored by the National Intelligence Council (NIC) on January 10. The workshop, which was designed to give advice on how best to incorporate climate change and other environmental threats into NIC reports, took place at Tuft University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Medford, Massachusetts. |
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| CIESIN to Offer ArcGIS Training Workshops | ||
| January 5, 2007 Two ESRI-authorized training workshops in ArcGIS 9.1 will be offered by CIESIN’s GIS Service Center later this month. The first session, “Introduction to ArcGIS 9.1, part 1,” is a two-day workshop to be held January 11–12, 2007. It introduces the fundamental concepts of GIS and uses hands-on exercises to familiarize users with the ArcGIS 9 program. The second class, “Introduction to ArcGIS 9.1, part 2,” is a three-day workshop to be held January 17–19, 2007. This course builds upon the concepts taught in the first session and expands student understanding of ArcMap, ArcCatalog, and ArcToolbox. |
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| Remote Sensing Brings New Understanding of Urban Environments | ||
| January 5, 2007 Urban Landsat:Cities from Space is a newly released Web site that provides access to data and maps developed from satellite-based remote sensing of urban areas around the world. The site is intended to support research and applications concerning the physical properties and processes of urban environments and the mapping and monitoring of urban land cover and spatial extent. The data and maps available from the Web site are based on the research of Dr. Christopher Small, Doherty Research Scientist with the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. The maps provide static snapshots of the urban mosaic, whereas monitoring allows the quantification of spatiotemporal dynamics. The addition of a nighttime lights layer to the urban extent complements the information derived from optical reflectance. Urban Landsat:Cities from Space currently provides direct access to remotely-sensed data images for 78 urban areas and to processed data for 28 sites. The data and Web site are hosted by the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), operated by CIESIN. |
A hands-on workshop on poverty mapping offered by CIESIN headlined a conference to advance the debate about the implications of globalization for poverty and inequality. The conference, Mapping Global Inequality: Beyond Income Inequality, was held December 13–14 at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Multidisciplinary experts gathered to discuss different dimensions of poverty and inequality at various geographic scales of analysis. Conference papers and presentations examined the newest trends in health inequalities and social outcomes; migration and inequality; wealth and other material inequalities; gender inequalities; and aspects of globalization and culture.
CIESIN director Robert Chen attended an International Symposium in Suzdal, Russia September 16–18 in honor of the 50th anniversary of the International Geophysical Year (
Marc Levy has been appointed CIESIN’s new deputy director efffective February 19, 2007. For the time being he will also retain his duties as the associate director for Science Applications. 
CIESIN is pleased to welcome Zhu Zhongming of the Scientific Information Center for Resources and Environment (SICRE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences as a visiting scientist for three months. Mr. Zhu will be working with CIESIN’s Information Services division on new digital archiving technologies and their application to interdisciplinary socioeconomic and environmental data. This collaboration stems from a previous visit in 2005 by a delegation from SICRE, which is located in Lanzhou, People’s Republic of China. Mr. Zhu is completing his PhD in Environmental and Ecological Research Informatics, with a focus on applying innovative theories and methods of informatics to data and information discovery and integration in the environmental sciences. |
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