SouthAsia

Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University; and Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT). 2005. Gridded Population of the World Version 3 (GPWv3). Palisades, NY: Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), Columbia University. Available at http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/gpw.

Travel time to major cities: A global map of Accessibility. The world is shrinking. Cheap flights, large scale commercial shipping and expanding road networks, only 10% of the land area is remote – more than 48 hours from a large city.This means that we are better connected to everywhere else than ever before. But global travel and international trade and just two of the forces that have reshaped our world. A new map of Travel Time to Major Cities – developed by the European Commission and the World Bank – captures this connectivity and the concentration of economic activity and also highlights that there is little wilderness left. The map shows how accessible some parts of the world have become whilst other regions have remained isolated. Accessibility – whether it is to markets, schools, hospitals or water – is a precondition for the satisfaction of almost any economic need. Furthermore, accessibility is relevant at all levels, from local development to global trade and this map fills an important gap in our understanding of the spatial patterns of economic, physical and social connectivity. Accessibility maps are made for a specific purpose and they cannot be used as a generic dataset to represent “the” accessibility for a given study area. The data described and presented here were used to create an urban/rural population gradient around large cities of 50,000 or more people. The assumptions made in the generation of this accessibility map can be found in the description and data sources links on the left. If these assumptions sound reasonable for your requirements then the data are available for download. If, however, the assumptions do not match your requirements then you can use the information in these pages as well as the software and external links to create your own accessibility model.

The Global Subnational Prevalence of Child Malnutrition dataset consists of estimates of the percentage of children with weight-for-age z-scores that are more than two standard deviations below the median of the NCHS/CDC/WHO International Reference Population. Data are reported for the most recent year with subnational information available at the time of development. The data products include a shapefile (vector data) of percentage rates, grids (raster data) of rates (per thousand in order to preserve precision in integer format), the number of children under five (the rate denominator), and the number of underweight children under five (the rate numerator), and a tabular dataset of the same and associated data. This dataset is produced by the Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN). The global data sets include two proxy poverty measurements: Infant Mortality Rates and Malnutrition (underweight children), all translated to a common quarter-degree grid. A quarter-degree grid cell is approximately 770 square kilometers (300 square miles) at the equator, and progressively less at higher latitudes.

This is the period during the year when both moisture availability and temperature are conducive to crop growth. Thus, in a formal sense, LGP refers to the number of days within LGPwhen moisture conditions are considered adequate.

The GLOBCOVER project was launched 2004 as an initiative of ESA which is now evolving to an international collaboration between ESA, FAO, UNEP, JRC, IGBP and GOFC-GOLD. The objective of GLOBCOVER is to produce a global land-cover map for the year 2005, using as main source of data the fine resolution (300 m) mode data from MERIS sensor on-board ENVISAT satellite, acquired over the full year 2005. This new product intends to complement and update other existing comparable global products, such as the global land cover map for the year 2000 (GLC 2000) with a resolution of 1 km produced by the JRC. Appropriate approaches for the validation of the land cover products are planned to be defined in consultation with CEOS. GlobCover 2009 land cover map (1 product a year): The land cover map is derived by an automatic and regionally-tuned classification of a time series of global MERIS FR mosaics for the year 2009. The global land cover map counts 22 land cover classes defined with the United Nations (UN) Land Cover Classification System (LCCS)

Global Assessment of Human-induced Soil Degradation (GLASOD) The GLASOD project (1987-1990) has produced a world map of human-induced soil degradation. Data were compiled in cooperation with a large number of soil scientists throughout the world, using uniform Guidelines and international correlation. The status of soil degradation was mapped within loosely defined physiographic units (polygons), based on expert judgement. The type, extent, degree, rate and main causes of degradation have been printed on a global map, at a scale of 1:10 million, and documented in a downloadable database. Information about the areal extent of human-induced soil degradation can be found in an explanatory note.

The Global Subnational Prevalence of Child Malnutrition dataset consists of estimates of the percentage of children with weight-for-age z-scores that are more than two standard deviations below the median of the NCHS/CDC/WHO International Reference Population. Data are reported for the most recent year with subnational information available at the time of development. The data products include a shapefile (vector data) of percentage rates, grids (raster data) of rates (per thousand in order to preserve precision in integer format), the number of children under five (the rate denominator), and the number of underweight children under five (the rate numerator), and a tabular dataset of the same and associated data. This dataset is produced by the Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN). The global data sets include two proxy poverty measurements: Infant Mortality Rates and Malnutrition (underweight children), all translated to a common quarter-degree grid. A quarter-degree grid cell is approximately 770 square kilometers (300 square miles) at the equator, and progressively less at higher latitudes.

The Global-Aridity surface shows moisture availability for potential growth of reference vegetation excluding the impact of soil mediating water runoff events. UNEP (UNEP 1997) breaks up Aridity Index, in the traditional classification scheme presented below.