Copyright Text: The Global Land Cover Map for the Year 2000, 2003. GLC2000 database, European Commision Joint Research Centre. http://www-gem.jrc.it/glc2000
Copyright Text: The CORINE Land Cover Project is a component of the CORINE (Coordination of Information on the Environment) programme and carries the task of building a consistent environmental information system within the European Community. The Land Cover Project was launched to provide support for the European Commission in its efforts to use and develop advanced data compilation and management techniques in carrying out its policies. Source: Corine Land Cover 2006 raster data - version 15 (08/2011) provided by European Environment Agency.
Copyright Text: Zomer RJ, Trabucco A, Bossio DA, van Straaten O, Verchot LV, 2008. Climate Change Mitigation: A Spatial Analysis of Global Land Suitability for Clean Development Mechanism Afforestation and Reforestation. Agric. Ecosystems and Envir. 126: 67-80. Zomer RJ, Bossio DA, Trabucco A, Yuanjie L, Gupta DC & Singh VP, 2007. Trees and Water: Smallholder Agroforestry on Irrigated Lands in Northern India. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute. pp 45. (IWMI Research Report 122). CGIAR-CSI Website: http://www.cgiar-csi.org
Copyright Text: "CRU CL 2.0 Global Climate Dataset" prepared by the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, UK, and distributed through the website: http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/~timm/grid/CRU_CL_2_0.html
Name: The World Atlas of the Artificial Night Sky Brightness
Display Field:
Type: Raster Layer
Geometry Type: null
Description: Ratios between the artificial sky brightness and the natural sky brightness
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: Credit: P. Cinzano, F. Falchi (University of Padova), C. D. Elvidge (NOAA National Geophysical Data Center, Boulder). Copyright Royal Astronomical Society. Reproduced from the Monthly Notices of the RAS by permission of Blackwell Science.
Copyright Text: Amante, C. and B. W. Eakins, ETOPO1 1 Arc-Minute Global Relief Model: Procedures, Data Sources and Analysis. NOAA Technical Memorandum NESDIS NGDC-24, 19 pp, March 2009.
Description: Nitrate is the major nutrient present in seawater. It is essential for the bioconversion of CO2 into organic matter by photosynthetic organisms.
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: Yearly average was computed from data provided by by the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center through the NASA GES DISC online archive.
Description: Iron is a micro nutrient essential for photosynthesis, although in trace quantities, its presence is necessary for phytoplankton growth.
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: Yearly average was computed from data provided by by the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center through the NASA GES DISC online archive
Description: Mixed layer is a layer in which active turbulence has homogenized physical properties some range of depths. Due to the heat capacity of seawater, a 2.5 m slab of this layer content as much heat as the entire atmosphere. This layer interchanges heat directly with atmospheric surface layer, acting as a driving mechanism for the climate system as well as ocean circulation.
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: Yearly average was computed from data provided by by the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center through the NASA GES DISC online archive.
Name: Global change in rain-use efficiency between 1981 and 2003 (Δ RUE/yr*1000)
Display Field:
Type: Raster Layer
Geometry Type: null
Description: Rain-use efficiency was calculated as the ratio of annual sum NDVI and station-observed annual rainfall (Δ RUE/yr*1000)
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: Rain-use efficiency (RUE) is considered to make allowance for the effect of fluctuations in rainfall on biomass productivity. RUE may fluctuate dramatically in the short term - often, there is a sharp decline in RUE in a wet year and it is assumed that the vegetation, whether cultivated or semi-natural, cannot make immediate use of the additional rain. However, where rainfall is the main limiting factor on biomass productivity, the long-term trend of RUE could be a good indicator of land degradation or improvement (Houérou 1984, 1988, 1989; Snyman 1998; Illius and O’Connor 1999; O’Connor and others 2001). RUE also accommodates the effects of local variations in slope, soil and vegetation (Justice and others 1991). FAO, 2008.
Description: This map shows the state of information presently available on the occurrence and extent of TBAs world-wide. The intention of the map is to provide a global overview of these important shared water resources and to encourage further assessment thereof. The map is based on the most recent inventory results of many active working groups around the world.
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC). http://www.un-igrac.org/
Description: The cryosphere is the term which collectively describes the portions of the Earth’s surface where water is in solid form, including sea ice, lake ice, river ice, snow cover, glaciers, ice caps and ice sheets, and frozen ground (which includes permafrost). A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation (melting and sublimation) over many years, often centuries.
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: Maurer, J. 2007. Atlas of the Cryosphere. Boulder, Colorado USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center. Digital media. http://nsidc.org/data/atlas/atlas_info.html
Description: Ocean-based pollution is assumed to derive from commercial and recreational ship activity. The shipping data provide an estimate of the occurrence of ships at a particular location, and therefore an estimate of the amount of pollution they produce (via fuel leaks, oil discharge, waste disposal, etc.) that is unique from their contribution to ship strikes, etc. Ocean currents can disperse this pollution into untraveled regions, but small-scale oceanography is known for only a few select locations around the world, and pollutants are likely to be most concentrated in high traffic areas. The dispersal of port-derived pollution was modelled as a diffusive plume, but with a maximum distance of 100 km.
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, 735 State Street - Santa Barbara, California, USA. http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/GlobalMarine
Description: The impact of land-based anthropogenic drivers of change on ocean ecosystems was evaluated with a 4 step process. First, watershed boundaries were developed with an automated flow-accumulation process. Then, data for land-based drivers (nutrient input, non-point source organic and inorganic pollution, and direct impact of humans) were spatially distributed onto the landscape with ancillary data. Nutrient and non-point source organic pollution data came from Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) national statistics and were distributed across landscapes in agricultural lands with dasymetric techniques. Non-point source inorganic pollution was modelled with global 1 km2 impervious surface area data under the assumption that most of this pollution comes from urban runoff. After that, values for these three anthropogenic drivers were then aggregated to the watershed and distributed to the pour point (i.e., stream and river mouths) for the watershed with raster statistics. Finally, spread of the driver values into coastal waters at each pour point was modelled with a cost-path surface on the basis of a decay function that assigns a fixed amount of the driver in the initial cell and then evenly distributes the remaining amount of driver in all adjacent and 'unvisited' cells, repeated until a minimum threshold is reached. This approach to modelling river plumes is diffusive and so allows drivers to wrap around headlands and islands, but does not account for nearshore advection that acts to push drivers in particular directions.
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, 735 State Street - Santa Barbara, California, USA. http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/GlobalMarine
Description: The impact of land-based anthropogenic drivers of change on ocean ecosystems was evaluated with a 4 step process. First, watershed boundaries were developed with an automated flow-accumulation process. Then, data for land-based drivers (nutrient input, non-point source organic and inorganic pollution, and direct impact of humans) were spatially distributed onto the landscape with ancillary data. Nutrient and non-point source organic pollution data came from Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) national statistics and were distributed across landscapes in agricultural lands with dasymetric techniques. Non-point source inorganic pollution was modelled with global 1 km2 impervious surface area data under the assumption that most of this pollution comes from urban runoff. After that, values for these three anthropogenic drivers were then aggregated to the watershed and distributed to the pour point (i.e., stream and river mouths) for the watershed with raster statistics. Finally, spread of the driver values into coastal waters at each pour point was modelled with a cost-path surface on the basis of a decay function that assigns a fixed amount of the driver in the initial cell and then evenly distributes the remaining amount of driver in all adjacent and 'unvisited' cells, repeated until a minimum threshold is reached. This approach to modelling river plumes is diffusive and so allows drivers to wrap around headlands and islands, but does not account for nearshore advection that acts to push drivers in particular directions.
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, 735 State Street - Santa Barbara, California, USA. http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/GlobalMarine
Description: The biodiversity hotspots are regions known to hold especially high numbers of species found nowhere else, yet their remaining habitat combined covers a little more than two percent of Earth's land surface. According to the criteria developed by Myers et al. (2000), a hotspot must meet two thresholds in order to qualify: 1) it must have at least 1500 endemic, native vascular plant species, and 2) it must have already lost at least 70% of its primary, native vegetation. Mittermeier et al. (2004) recognize 34 hotspots which together hold 50% of the world's plant species and 42% of all terrestrial vertebrates as endemics. As evidence of their urgency for global conservation, hotspots also hold exceptionally high numbers of threatened vertebrates, including 50% of threatened mammals, 73% of threatened birds and 79% of threatened amphibians as endemics. There are an estimated two billion people living in the hotspots, with 300 million people within less than 10 km of existing protected areas.
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: "Hotspots Revisited", Conservation International 2004
Copyright Text: Olson, D. M, E. Dinerstein, E.D. Wikramanayake, N.D. Burgess, G.V.N. Powell, E.C. Underwood, J.A. D'amico, I. Itoua, H.E. Strand, J.C. Morrison, C.J. Loucks, T.F. Allnutt, T.H. Ricketts, Y. Kura, J.F. Lamoreux, W.W.Wettengel, P. Hedao, & K.R. Kassem. 2001. Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World: A New Map of Life on Earth. BioScience 51:933-938
Copyright Text: Spalding MD, Fox HE, Allen GR, Davidson N, Ferdaña ZA, Finlayson M, Halpern BS, Jorge MA, Lombana A, Lourie SA, Martin KD, McManus E, Molnar J, Recchia CA, Robertson J (2007) Marine Ecoregions of the World: a bioregionalization of coast and shelf areas. BioScience 57: 573-583
Value: tropical and subtropical floodplain rivers and wetland complexes Label: Tropical and subtropical floodplain rivers and wetland complexes Description: Symbol:
Copyright Text: Ramankutty, N., and J.A. Foley (1999). Estimating historical changes in land cover: North American croplands from 1850 to 1992. Global Ecology and Biogeography 8, 381-396.
Description: The FGGD land cover occurrence maps are global raster datalayers with a resolution of 5 arc-minutes. Each pixel in each map contains a value representing the percentage of the area belonging to the land cover type concerned. The method is described in FAO and IIASA, 2007, Mapping biophysical factors that influence agricultural production and rural vulnerability, by H. von Velthuizen et al.
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: FAO and NASA, 2006. "Mapping biophysical factors that influence agricultural production and rural vulnerability", by H. van Velthuizen et al. Environmental and natural Resources Series No. 11. Rome.
Copyright Text: The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA 2000). U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS)
Copyright Text: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) with the collaboration of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
Copyright Text: UNEP (2012): The UNEP Environmental Data Explorer, as compiled from United Nations Environment Programme/World Conservation Monitoring Center (UNEP-WCMC) . United Nations Environment Programme. http://geodata.grid.unep.ch
Copyright Text: IUCN and UNEP-WCMC (2010), The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA), Cambridge, UK: UNEP- WCMC. Available at: www.protectedplanet.net
Description: Wetlands of International Importance
The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, called the Ramsar Convention, is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. The Ramsar Convention is the only global environmental treaty that deals with a particular ecosystem. The treaty was adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971 and the Convention's member countries cover all geographic regions of the planet. The Convention's mission is "the conservation and wise use of all wetlands through local and national actions and international cooperation, as a contribution towards achieving sustainable development throughout the world".
Upon joining the Ramsar Convention, each Contracting Party is obliged to designate at least one wetland site for inclusion in the List of Wetlands of International Importance. Learn more: http://www.ramsar.org
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: Ramsar Sites Information Service (RSIS). Site boundaries supplied by Ramsar Contracting Parties. Wetlands International delivers the RSIS for the Ramsar Convention, under arrangement with the Ramsar Secretariat. More information: http://www.ramsar.wetlands.org
Description: The incidence of invasive species was modeled as a function of the amount of cargo traffic at a port, on the basis of results from other studies showing a relationship between these two variables and in the absence of actual data for the global distribution of invasive. Port volume values were input into a model of spread that was used to calculate a relative measure of risk of invasive species. To model the spatial impact of invasive species, a diffusive plume model was used to mimic invasion fronts and spread the value for each port at 1 km2 resolution into adjacent waters, with a minimum threshold value of 5 mt set as a limit to the spread of the plume (i.e., once the value in a cell fell below 5 mt, the plume was assumed to be at its furthest extent). This set a maximum distance from the largest port of 1000 km, an arbitrary but reasonable maximum distance. These areas were then clipped to the shallow habitats (<60 m depth), since most known invasive species transported by ballast water are intertidal or shallow subtidal. This approach to modeling invasive species does not account for species that arrive through other transport mechanisms (such as aquaculture), and it assumes a linear relationship between invasive species occurrence and port volume, and between spatial extent of the invasion and port volume.
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, 735 State Street - Santa Barbara, California, USA. http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/GlobalMarine
Description: The Last of the Wild represents the least influenced (most wild) areas of major terrestrial biomes. Most wild in each biome are defined as areas with Human Footprint Index values less than or equal to 10.
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: Last of the Wild Data Version 2, 2005 (LWP-2): Global Last of the Wild (LTW). Wildlife Conservation (WCS) and Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN).
Copyright Text: Foley, J.A., I.C. Prentice, N. Ramankutty, S. Levis, D. Pollard, S. Sitch, and A. Haxeltine (1996) An Integrated Biosphere Model of Land Surface Processes, Terrestrial Carbon Balance and Vegetation Dynamics, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 10, 603-628. Kucharik, C.J., J.A. Foley, C. Delire, V.A. Fisher, M.T. Coe, J. Lenters, C. Young-Molling, N. Ramankutty, J.M. Norman, and S.T. Gower (2000): Testing the performance of a dynamic global ecosystem model: Water balance, carbon balance and vegetation structure. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 14(3), 795-825
Copyright Text: Fetke, Balazs M. et al (2000). Global Composite Runoff Fields Based on Observed River Discharge and Simulated Water Balances. Complex Systems Research Center, University of New Hampshire. UNH-GRDC Composite Runoff Fields v1.0.
Copyright Text: Ramankutty, N., A.T. Evan, C. Monfreda, and J.A. Foley. (2010). Global Agricultural Lands: Croplands, 2000. Data distributed by the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC): http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/es/aglands.html
Copyright Text: Satellite data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Satellite Pour l’Observation de la Terre (SPOT). Compiled by Navin Ramankutty et al. (2008). Source: SEDAC.
Description: The number of people without electricity access was assessed in assistance with the World Population Prospects - The 2011 Revision, published by the United Nations (UN) . Additionally, UN data has been adjusted with data from the IEA Statistics Division in order to get the most accurate demographic estimate for 2009 - electricity access data was adjusted to be consistent with demographic patterns of urban/rural population. Due to differences in definitions and methodology from different sources, data quality may vary from country to country. Where country data appeared contradictory, outdated or unreliable, the IEA Secretariat made estimates based on cross-country comparisons and earlier surveys.
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: Source: World Energy Outlook (WEO), 2011
Name: Rural population density (persons per square kilometre), 2000
Display Field:
Type: Raster Layer
Geometry Type: null
Description: The FGGD (Food Insecurity, Poverty and Environment Global GIS Database) rural population density map is a global raster datalayer with a resolution of 5 arc-minutes. Each pixel classified as rural by the urban area boundaries map contains the number of persons per square kilometre, aggregated from the 30 arc-second datalayer. All remaining pixels contain no data. The method used by FAO to generate this datalayer is described in FAO, 2005, Mapping global urban and rural population distributions, by M. Salvatore, et. al.
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: FAO, 2005. "Mapping global urban and rural population distributions" by M. Salvatore, F. Pozzi, E. Ataman, B. Huddleston & M. Bloise. Environmental and natural Resources Working Paper N. 24. Rome.
Description: The number of people without electricity access was assessed in assistance with the World Population Prospects - The 2011 Revision, published by the United Nations (UN) . Additionally, UN data has been adjusted with data from the IEA Statistics Division in order to get the most accurate demographic estimate for 2009 - electricity access data was adjusted to be consistent with demographic patterns of urban/rural population. Due to differences in definitions and methodology from different sources, data quality may vary from country to country. Where country data appeared contradictory, outdated or unreliable, the IEA Secretariat made estimates based on cross-country comparisons and earlier surveys.
Name: Global maps of urban extent from satellite data
Display Field:
Type: Raster Layer
Geometry Type: null
Description: Although cities cover a tiny fraction (< 1%) of the world’s surface, urban areas are the nexus of human activity with >50% of the population and 70-90% of economic activity. As such, material / energy consumption, air pollution, and expanding impervious surface are all concentrated in urban areas, with important environmental implications at local, regional and potentially global scales. New ways to measure the built environment over large areas are thus critical to answering a wide range of research questions on the role of urbanization in climate, biogeochemistry and hydrological cycles.
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: Schneider, A., M. A. Friedl and D. Potere (2009) A new map of global urban extent from MODIS data. Environmental Research Letters, volume 4, article 044003. Schneider, A., M. A. Friedl and D. Potere (2010) Monitoring urban areas globally using MODIS 500m data: New methods and datasets based on urban ecoregions. Remote Sensing of Environment, vol. 114, p. 1733-1746.
Description: The population distribution refers to the percentage of the total population in rural areas. The estimates presented refer to the population as of 1 July of the given year.
The urban-rural classification of population in internationally published statistics follows the national census definition, which differs from one country or area to another. National definitions are usually based on criteria that may include any of the following: size of population in a locality, population density, distance between built-up areas, predominant type of economic activity, legal or administrative boundaries and urban characteristics, such as specific services and facilities.
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, World Urbanization Prospects: The 2009 Revision. CD-ROM Edition – Data in digital form (POP/DB/WUP/Rev. 2009).
Description: The wilderness value is essentially a measure of remoteness from human influence and is assessed on the basis of: remoteness from settlement (settled land or points of permanent occupation), from access (constructed vehicle access routes), and apparent naturalness (remoteness from permanent manmade structures) (Lesslie and Maslen, 1995). The analysis is carried out on a grid, using data from the Digital Chart of the World (DCW), and remoteness is measured as a distance from each grid point to the nearest feature of each class within a given radius (generally 30 km). Wilderness value is the sum of standardised values for each indicator class. To provide an indication of likely quality of environment in different areas based on the formula of distance from geographic features together with associated weightings defined within the programs. GIS analysis by R. Lesslie (ANU) , method developed for the Australian Heritage Commission.
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: UNEP-WCMC. Dataset derived using the Digital Chart of the World 1993 version and methods based on the Australian National Wilderness Inventory (Lesslie, R. and Maslen, M. 1995. National Wilderness Inventory Handbook. 2nd edn, Australian Heritage Commission. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra).
Description: The Human Footprint Index (HF) expresses relative human influence in each terrestrial biomae. HF values range from 0 to 100. A value of 0 represents the least influenced part of the biome with value of 100 representing the most influenced part of the biome.
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: Last of the Wild Data Version 2, 2005 (LWP-2): Global Human Footprint data set (HF). Wildlife Conservation (WCS) and Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN).
Description: The Human Influence Index (HII) is a measure of direct human influence on terrestrial ecosystems using the best available data sets on human settlements (population density, built-up areas), access (roads, railroads, navigable rivers, coastline), landscape transformation (land use/land cover) and electric power infrastructure (nighttime lights). HII values range from 0 to 64. Zero value represents no human influence and 64 represents maximum human influence possible using all measures of human presence.
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: Last of the Wild Data Version 2, 2005 (LWP-2): Global Human Influence Index (HII). Wildlife Conservation (WCS) and Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN).
Description: The Environmental Vulnerability Index (EVI) is based on 50 indicators for estimating the vulnerability of the environment of a country to future shocks. These indicators are combined by simple averaging and reported simultaneously as a single index, a range of policy-relevant thematic sub-indices and as a profile showing the results for each indicator. Simple averages across indicators were used because they can be easily understood and more complex models do not appear to offer any advantages to the expression or utility of the index. This overview with drill-down structure means that in addition to an overall signal of vulnerability, the EVI can be used to identify specific problems. The EVI has been designed to reflect the extent to which the natural environment of a country is prone to damage and degradation.
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: Source: South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) and UNEP
Copyright Text: National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, 735 State Street - Santa Barbara, California, USA. http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/GlobalMarine
Description: The FAO reports small-scale fisheries data for 59 countries. The Sea Around Us Project (SAUP) subjected these data to initial quality checks (spot validation against locally-derived data). A multivariate regression model was used to isolate geographic, demographic, and socioeconomic variables that best predict the SAUP-validated artisanal catch rates from FAO (excluding values estimated by SAUP). Data for these variables were obtained from the CIA World Factbook (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook), World Resources Institute EarthTrends database (http://www.earthtrends.wri.org), and ETOPO2 bathymetric data (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/global/relief/ETOPO2/) and included: length of coastline, shallow shelf area (<100m within EEZ), 2005 population size, proportion of population living within 100 km of the coast, per-capita GDP (calculated as the mean of this value from 2001-2003, in 2006 US dollars), unemployment rates, proportion of total protein supply from fish products, daily per capita consumption of fish and fisheries products, total number of commercial fishing vessels, total annual landings of marine animals taken for commercial, industrial, recreational and subsistence purposes, and the ratio of total landings to total number of commercial vessels.
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: National Center for Ecological Analysys and Synthesis. Santa Barbara, California, USA. http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/GlobalMarine
Name: A Global Map of Human Impacts to Marine Ecosystems
Display Field:
Type: Raster Layer
Geometry Type: null
Description:
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: Map the human impact to the world's oceans. National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), Santa Barbara, University of California. http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/globalmarine
Name: Ocean acidification (Aragonite Saturation State level)
Display Field:
Type: Raster Layer
Geometry Type: null
Description: Changes in CO2 concentration alter the (ASS) of the ocean, among other chemical properties of seawater, and as ASS levels drop the ability of calcifying species such as corals, diatoms, and shelled invertebrates to create calcium carbonate structures declines (S22). When ASS = 1 the seawater is exactly in equilibrium or saturation with respect to aragonite.
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, 735 State Street - Santa Barbara, California, USA. http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/GlobalMarine
Copyright Text: Centers for the Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) at the University of Kansas and Haskell Indian Nations University. https://www.cresis.ku.edu/data/sea-level-rise-maps
Description: Wetlands of International Importance
The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, called the Ramsar Convention, is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. The Ramsar Convention is the only global environmental treaty that deals with a particular ecosystem. The treaty was adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971 and the Convention's member countries cover all geographic regions of the planet. The Convention's mission is "the conservation and wise use of all wetlands through local and national actions and international cooperation, as a contribution towards achieving sustainable development throughout the world".
Upon joining the Ramsar Convention, each Contracting Party is obliged to designate at least one wetland site for inclusion in the List of Wetlands of International Importance. Learn more: http://www.ramsar.org
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: Source: Ramsar Sites Information Service (RSIS). Site boundaries supplied by Ramsar Contracting Parties. Wetlands International delivers the RSIS for the Ramsar Convention, under arrangement with the Ramsar Secretariat. More information: http://www.ramsar.wetlands.org
Description: Available blue water (Ba) is the total amount of water available to a catchment before any are satisfied.
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: Gassert, F., M. Luck, M. Landis, P. Reig, and T. Shiao. 2013. “Aqueduct Global Maps 2.0.” Working Paper. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute. Available online at http://wri.org/publication/aqueduct-metadata-global
Description: Total blue water (Bt) for each catchment is the accumulated runoff upstream of the catchment plus the runoff in the catchment.
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: Gassert, F., M. Luck, M. Landis, P. Reig, and T. Shiao. 2013. “Aqueduct Global Maps 2.0.” Working Paper. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute. Available online at http://wri.org/publication/aqueduct-metadata-global
Description: Access to water measures the percentage of population without access to improved drinking water sources. Higher values indicate areas where people have less access to safe drinking water, and consequently high reputational risks to those not using water in an equitable way. Source: WHO UNICEF JMP
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: Gassert, F., M. Luck, M. Landis, P. Reig, and T. Shiao. 2013. “Aqueduct Global Maps 2.0.” Working Paper. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute. Available online at http://wri.org/publication/aqueduct-metadata-global
Description: Drought severity measures the average length of drought times the dryness of the droughts from 1901 to 2008. Drought is defined as a contiguous period when soil moisture remains below the 20th percentile. Length is measured in month and dryness is the average number of percentage points by which soil moisture drops below the 20th percentile. Source: Sheffield and Wood
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: Gassert, F., M. Luck, M. Landis, P. Reig, and T. Shiao. 2013. “Aqueduct Global Maps 2.0.” Working Paper. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute. Available online at http://wri.org/publication/aqueduct-metadata-global
Description: Flood occurrence is the number of floods recorded from 1985 to 2011. Source: Brakenridge, Dartmouth Flood Observatory
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: Gassert, F., M. Luck, M. Landis, P. Reig, and T. Shiao. 2013. “Aqueduct Global Maps 2.0.” Working Paper. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute. Available online at http://wri.org/publication/aqueduct-metadata-global
Description: Seasonal variability measures variation in water supply between months of the year. Sources: WRI Aqueduct; NASA GLDAS-2
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: Gassert, F., M. Luck, M. Landis, P. Reig, and T. Shiao. 2013. “Aqueduct Global Maps 2.0.” Working Paper. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute. Available online at http://wri.org/publication/aqueduct-metadata-global
Description: Groundwater stress measures the ratio of groundwater withdrawal relative to recharge rate; values above one indicate where unsustainable groundwater consumption could affect groundwater availability and groundwater-dependent ecosystems. Source: Gleeson, Wada, Bierkens, and van Beek
methodology are provided in the Aqueduct Global Maps 2.0 metadata document available online at http://wri.org/publication/aqueduct-metadata-global.
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: Gassert, F., M. Luck, M. Landis, P. Reig, and T. Shiao. 2013. “Aqueduct Global Maps 2.0.” Working Paper. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute. Available online at http://wri.org/publication/aqueduct-metadata-global
Description: Baseline water stress measures total annual water withdrawals (municipal, industrial, and agricultural) expressed as a percentage of the total annual available blue water. Higher values indicate more competition among users. Sources: WRI Aqueduct; FAO AQUASTAT; NASA GLDAS-2; Shiklomanov and Rodda; Flörke et al.; Matsutomi et al.
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: Gassert, F., M. Luck, M. Landis, P. Reig, and T. Shiao. 2013. “Aqueduct Global Maps 2.0.” Working Paper. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute. Available online at http://wri.org/publication/aqueduct-metadata-global
Description: Mining environmental liabilities consist of all the facilities, effluents, emissions, debris or repositories of waste produced by mining operations, now abandoned or inactive, constituting a permanent and potential risk to public health, the surrounding ecosystem and property
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: Fondo Nacional del Medio Ambiente de Perú (FONAM, 2009)
Description: LMEs are natural regions of ocean space encompassing coastal waters from river basins and estuaries to the seaward boundary of continental shelves and the outer margins of coastal currents. They are relatively large regions of 200,000 km2 or greater, the natural boundaries of which are based on four ecological criteria: bathymetry, hydrography, productivity, and trophically related populations. The theory, measurement, and modeling relevant to monitoring the changing states of LMEs are imbedded in reports on ecosystems with multiple steady states, and on the pattern formation and spatial diffusion within ecosystems. The concept that critical processes controlling the structure and function of biological communities can best be addressed on a regional basis has been applied to the ocean by using LMEs as the distinct units for marine resources assessment, monitoring, and management.
Definition Expression:
Copyright Text: Large Marine Ecosystem Program NOAA-Fisheries Narragansett Laboratory Narragansett, R.I. 02882 Kenneth.Sherman@NOAA.gov www.lme.noaa.gov