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image of SEDAC population data
image of population data in the eastern United States
Global Gridded Relative Deprivation Index (GRDI) map showing the relative levels of multidimensional deprivation and poverty

SEDAC

Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center

NASA's Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) focuses on archiving and distributing data related to human interactions in the environment. SEDAC synthesizes Earth science and socioeconomic data and information in ways useful to a wide range of decision-makers and other applied users, and seeks to improve access to and use of key socioeconomic and interdisciplinary data that are or can be integrated with remote sensing data.

SEDAC develops and maintains extensive fundamental data on human settlements, infrastructure, and population that underpin many different science and application areas.

SEDAC has extensive geospatial data holdings covering the following thematic areas:

  • Agriculture and Food Security
  • Climate Impacts, Vulnerability, and Adaptation
  • Biodiversity, Conservation, and Protected Areas
  • Environmental Governance and International Treaties
  • Hazards and Disaster Risk
  • Health and the Environment
  • Infrastructure
  • Land Use and Land Cover Change
  • Marine and Coastal Regions and Sea Level Rise
  • Population Distribution and Change
  • Poverty and Economic Indicators
  • Applications of Space-Based Remote Sensing
  • Environmental Sustainability Indicators and Trends
  • Urbanization and Human Settlements
  • Water Resources and Consumption

SEDAC's mission is to develop and operate applications that support the integration of socioeconomic and Earth science data and to serve as an "Information Gateway" between the Earth sciences and the social sciences. To accomplish this, SEDAC focuses on the following mission areas:

  • Population, Land Use, and Emissions (PLUE)
  • Mitigation, Vulnerability, and Adaptation (MVA)
  • Hazard Vulnerability Assessment (HVA)
  • Poverty and Food Security (PFS)
  • Environmental and Sustainable Development (ESD)
     

SEDAC leads a range of projects that connect user communities with the data and resources they need to advance our understanding of the interaction between humans and the environment.

Gridded Population of the World

The Gridded Population of the World (GPW) collection models the distribution of human population (counts and densities) on a continuous global raster surface. Now in its fourth version (GPWv4), GPW provides globally consistent and spatially explicit data for use in research, policy-making, and communications.

Air Quality Data for Health-Related Applications

The Air Quality Data for Health-Related Applications (AQDH) collection provides air quality data for health-related research and application.

Sustainable Development Goal Indicators

The Sustainable Development Goal Indicators (SDGI) collection provides globally consistent, regularly updated, operational datasets of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators.

SEDAC is hosted by the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), which is a center within the Columbia Climate School at Columbia University. CIESIN works at the intersection of the social, natural, and information sciences, and specializes in on-line data and information management, spatial data integration and training, and interdisciplinary research related to human interactions in the environment. CIESIN is a unit of the Earth Institute at Columbia University based at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

SEDAC Communities

SEDAC engages with communities across disciplines. Note that some lists require membership to access content.

Networks

Data Distribution Centre (DDC) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

The DDC of the IPCC Provides access to baseline and scenario data related to population, economic development, technology, and natural resources for use in climate impact assessments.

Population-Environment Research Network (PERN)

PERN seeks to advance academic research on population and the environment by promoting online scientific exchange among researchers from social and natural science disciplines worldwide.

Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP)

ESIP is a diverse network of scientists, data stewards, and technology developers that improves access to Earth science data and information by a wide community of users, including scientists, academics, and the general public.

World Data System

The mission of the World Data System (WDS) is to enhance the capabilities, impact and sustainability of its member data repositories and data services by: creating trusted communities of scientific data repositories; strengthening the scientific enterprise throughout the entire lifecycle of data and all related components creating first-class data that feeds first-class research output; and advocating for accessible data and transparent and reproducible science.

Research Data Alliance (RDA)

The Research Data Alliance (RDA) builds the social and technical bridges that enable open sharing of data. The RDA vision is researchers and innovators openly sharing data across technologies, disciplines, and countries to address the grand challenges of society.

Discussion Lists

PERNSEMINARS - Population-Environment Research Network (PERN) Cyberseminars

Periodic “cyberseminars” (online seminars) hosted by the Population-Environment Research Network, a vehicle for communication on population-environment research topics among members of PERN. Membership in PERN is free-of-charge and open to anyone with interests in population-environment research.

INT-LAW - International Law

A SEDAC-sponsored mailing list that serves as a forum for discussion and sharing of information concerning foreign, comparative, and international (fci) legal resources.

INDICATORS - Environmental and Sustainability Indicators

A SEDAC-sponsored list that serves as a forum for exchange on the broad topic of environmental and sustainability indicators.

HDGEC - Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change

A SEDAC-sponsored mailing list that serves as a forum for the exchange of information and opinions on the human dimensions of global environmental change.

CoreTrustSeal Certified Repository

We are proud to be a CoreTrustSeal Certified Repository. CoreTrustSeal is an international, community based, non-governmental, and non-profit organization promoting sustainable and trustworthhy data infrastructures.

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