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| Digital Archiving Issues Examined at Conference | ||||
July 14, 2008 |
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| United Arab Emirates Advised on Environmental Performance Index | ||||
July 11, 2008 See: Environmental Sustainability Index
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| CIESIN Bids Goodbye to Visiting Scholar, Students | ||||
July 3, 2008
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| CIESIN Analysis Helps Reveal Possible Security Risks Due to Climate Change | ||||
| June 27, 2008
A new assessment projecting the impact of climate change on U.S. and global security issues over the course of the next two decades, based in part on analysis prepared by CIESIN for the National Intelligence Council (NIC), was delivered to the U.S. House Intelligence Committee for a briefing June 25. The assessment itself is classified but CIESIN’s report and data are publicly available here. CIESIN’s analysis ranked countries by looking at three climate risks: sea-level rise, increased water scarcity, and vulnerability based on projected temperature change in relation to capacity to a nation’s ability to adapt. Countries with the most people exposed to sea-level rise were China, the Philippines, Egypt and Indonesia. Although most countries with high exposure to sea-level rise had low levels of exposure to historical risks of political instability, the study found a number of countries where the opposite was true (where high vulnerability based on projected temperature change and levels of adaptive capacity accompanied historically high risks of political instability): South Africa, Nepal, Morocco, Bangladesh, Tunisia, Paraguay, Yemen, Sudan and Côte d’Ivoire. “The science of climate impacts does not give us definitive answers to certain questions about the impact of climate change—for example, how climate change might worsen conflicts in Darfur,” said Marc Levy, CIESIN deputy director and a co-author of the studies. “However, we can pinpoint areas of high projected climate change that are also in historically politically unstable regions; this suggests that climate change is likely to heighten political risks.” Along with CIESIN, other open sources used in the assessment included the U.S. Climate Change Program; the Center for Naval Analyses; the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; the RAND Corporation; and Arizona State University. See:
Assessment of Select Climate Change Impacts on U.S. National Security |
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| CIESIN Celebrates 10 Years at Lamont | ||||
June 20, 2008
An outdoor afternoon party attended by CIESIN staff, alumni, and many Columbia University colleagues and friends was held at the Lamont campus in Palisades, June 20 to celebrate CIESIN's 10-year anniversary as part of the Earth Institute (EI). The event also marked the upcoming retirement of associate director Robert Worrest and former CIESIN director Roberta Balstad. The gathering of more than 150 people took place under sunny skies and a sprawling white tent on the grounds of the former Lamont family estate along the Hudson River. A live calypso band, a timeline showcasing CIESIN’s 10 years at Columbia, and remarks by Mike Purdy, director of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and Steve Zebiak, director general of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, were among the highlights of the event. CIESIN director Robert Chen and deputy director Marc Levy also reflected on the many collaborative activities that have developed with colleagues at the EI and the University more broadly. |
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| NASA Earth Science Data Centers Hold Technical Meeting in Minneapolis | ||||
| June 19, 2008 Managers and system engineers from the NASA Earth Science Data Centers met June 17-18 in Minneapolis to discuss common issues and promote coordination and collaboration in data access, management, visualization, and services. CIESIN director Robert Chen, who serves as manager of the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), participated in the meeting along with Information Technology Division associate director Sri Vinay, SEDAC’s system engineer, and geographic information specialist Greg Yetman. Chen organized a series of sessions on the first day focused on how to implement and coordinate geospatial technologies and standards to improve data accessibility, quality, and use. Yetman demonstrated SEDAC’s Internet mapping technologies, which have been integrated with services available from other data centers in support of the International Polar Year (IPY). The Earth Science Data Centers are part of the overall NASA Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) which manages and distributes the vast amounts of remote sensing data collected by NASA’s Earth observing satellites. See: NASA Data Centers NASA Earth Observing System |
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| Use of CIESIN’s Data Following Recent Disasters Featured by NASA | ||||
| June 13, 2008 A NASA Web feature, “NASA Data Helps Pinpoint Impacted Populations in Disaster Aftermath,” showcases the use of CIESIN’s population data and hazards data, as well as other data holdings, following the recent earthquake in China and cyclone Nargis in Burma (Myanmar). CIESIN director Robert Chen and deputy director Marc Levy were interviewed for this feature. Reporting on the cyclone, CNN televised May 7 a map of population density in Burma supplied by CIESIN to visualize the unusual route the cyclone took through the low-lying, densely populated Irawaddy delta. CIESIN also provided district-level population data for Burma to the World Health Organization. A map of China based on CIESIN’s population data accompanied an article in the May 13 Wall Street Journal (WSJ Online), comparing the location of the Sichuan province earthquakes and population centers in China. For a map illustrating an article on the vulnerability of children in both developing and developed countries, published May 27 in the Science Times section of The New York Times, CIESIN provided estimates of school-age populations around the world living in high-risk earthquake zones. These maps and analyses were produced by the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), which CIESIN operates with funding from NASA. CIESIN and SEDAC work to make data accessible to a wide community of users. Data may be downloaded and visualized via a variety of map services, including Google Earth and NASA World Wind, and a custom map client. See: NASA Web Feature Population density in region of Cyclone Nargis |
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| SEDAC User Working Group Welcomes New Members | ||||
| June 11, 2008
These individuals join a distinguished group of social and natural scientists and applied users from academic, governmental, and nongovernmental organizations. Chaired by Prof. Harlan Onsrud of the University of Maine, the UWG advises SEDAC on user needs for data and services, and strategic priorities. |
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| Research Assistants Join CIESIN Team for the Summer | ||||
June 10, 2008 Steffen Foerster, a Phd candidate in
ecology and evolutionary biology
at Columbia University, is working on an international collaborative project to develop a new and improved global roads data set. Helping to document the wide range of research and educational activities dealing with China at the EI is Yun Zheng, a junior at Columbia majoring in earth and environmental engineering. Soh Young In, who recently graduated from Columbia with a B.A. in economics and statistics, is assisting in making more accessible new data on observed climate data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Faye Bi, who will graduate in 2010 with a major in anthropology, is participating in the development and updating of CIESIN’s poverty and population data. CIESIN is again hosting an intern from the LDEO Intern program, Ariel Zucker, a rising senior studying economics at Columbia. Zucker, who previously worked for CIESIN on the development of an online mapping tool for ICAP (International Center for Aids Care and Treatment Programs), is researching antibiotic consumption for the global emerging diseases (EIDs) study under deputy director and associate director of the science division, Marc Levy. Another EI-supported intern, Greer Raggio, entering the second year of her masters in environmental health sciences at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, is also contributing to this study, focusing on the relationship of climate change to EIDs.
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| Integrating Spatial Data with Climate Information to Improve Public Health Systems | ||||
June 6, 2008 See: Summer Institute 2008: Climate Information for Public Health |
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| Technology’s Impact on Data Stewardship at 2008 IASSIST Conference | ||||
June 2, 2008 |
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| Map Reveals Numbers of School-Age Children in High-Earthquake Zones | ||||
May 27, 2008
A major concern highlighted in the recent earthquake in China is the poor construction of school buildings, leading to high mortality among school-age children. An article by Andrew Revkin published on May 27 in the Science Times section of The New York Times, “Turning Schools from Death Traps into Havens,” focused on the vulnerability of children in both developing and developed countries and on how relatively modest improvements in design and construction can mitigate this problem. Art Lerner-Lam, director of the Center for Hazards and Risk Research (CHRR) at Columbia and an associate director with the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO), discussed the potential for an urban megadisaster in Eurasia. CIESIN provided estimates of school-age populations around the world living in high-risk earthquake zones. These estimates, developed by associate research scientist Susana Adamo and staff associate Maria Muniz based on CIESIN’s spatial population and hazards data, were presented in a map accompanying the article. |
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| New Approaches to Slum Mapping Explored at Workshop | ||||
May 24, 2008
See: Global Slum Mapping Workshop
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| CIESIN Data and Maps Show Population in Recent Disaster Areas | ||||
May 14, 2008
A map of population density in Myanmar based on CIESIN’s Gridded Population of the World (GPW) data set was featured prominently in a CNN newscast May 7 describing the path of Cyclone Nargis through the Irrawaddy Delta and the populations affected. Developed by the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) operated by CIESIN, the population density data were also provided directly to staff at the World Health Organization for use in planning humanitarian assistance. The data were shown again May 13 in a map of China in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ Online) that compared the location of the Sichuan province earthquakes and population centers in China. Both maps were accessed from the
SEDAC Gridded Population of the World (GPW) Web site. |
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| New Uses for Online Mapping Tools, Cyberinfrastructure Explored in Boulder | ||||
| May 8, 2008 Mark Becker, CIESIN associate director for Geospatial Applications, and Robert R. Downs, CIESIN senior digital archivist, participated in two workshops in Boulder, Colorado May 5–7. Becker attended “Geosciences and Beyond: A Workshop Exploring the Next Generation Applications of Google Earth” co-sponsored by the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) and the Electronic Geophysical Year (eGY). As part of a panel on current and potential uses of Google Earth, he demonstrated CIESIN’s online data and tools for both educational and public health applications. Downs participated in “Cyberinfrastructure for Environmental Observations, Analysis, and Forecasting: A Cyberinformatics Forum,” held at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Kerstin Lehnert of LDEO was one of the Forum's organizers; Lehnert collaborates with CIESIN on a number of Earth Science cyberinfrastructure projects. See: Cyberinfrastructure...Cyberinformatics Forum |
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| CIESIN Returns to China to Hold Additional GIS Training | ||||
May 5, 2008
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| Updated for 2008: TerraViva! SEDAC Viewer | ||||
May 2, 2008
The 2008 TerraViva! SEDAC Viewer has been updated with a wide range of new SEDAC data. This map viewer and standalone software application (Microsoft Windows-based) uses a powerful data-viewing engine and tools to enable the visualization and integration of hundreds of socioeconomic and environmental variables and layers, including a range of satellite-based data. Produced in collaboration between ISciences and the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) operated by CIESIN, these data sets build on a collection that includes the flagship SEDAC data set, Gridded Population of the World (GPW), and others. The 2008 version adds the following SEDAC data collections: The software is free of charge. |
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| Scientists from Japan and China Visit CIESIN | ||||
April 23, 2008
Delegations from Japan and China were hosted recently by the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) operated by CIESIN. On April 21 two visitors from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) met with CIESIN staff and toured the Lamont Campus: Dr. Yasushi Horikawa, executive director, Office of Space Applications and Mr. Takayuki Kawai, deputy manager, SAPC. Dr. Horikawa made a presentation to CIESIN and Lamont researchers on the contribution of space-based Earth observations to the study of climate change. Discussions focused on Japan’s involvement in the planned Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS), and on SEDAC’s progress in the areas of data interoperability and indicator development.
The following day, April 22,
Cai Yunlong of Peking University and seven other geographers and social scientists from around China visited CIESIN. Prof. Cai, a vice president of the Geographical Society of China, gave an overview of the state of geographical research in China, including development of China’s spatial data infrastructure. Prof. Cai is also the dissertation advisor for visiting scientist Huang Qiuhao, and conducts research on land cover and land use change. |
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| Geography’s Importance Headlined at 2008 AAG Meeting | ||||
April 20, 2008 Another featured session at the AAG meeting was a panel on “Developing GIScience and Geographic Analysis Programs at Universities Which Do Not Have Geography Departments,” in which CIESIN director Robert Chen described CIESIN’s role in interdisciplinary geospatial research and data development at Columbia University. Columbia, which terminated its Geography Department in 1986, is one of several U.S. universities such as Harvard, Brown, Stanford, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Michigan that now have active research and education activities in GIScience and spatial analysis without formal Geography departments. Elsewhere at the AAG meeting, CIESIN research associate Valentina Mara gave a paper
on “Global Patterns of Urbanization vis-à-vis Ecosystems,” co-authored with former CIESIN research scientist Deborah Balk, in a session on Worldwide Urban Population Change. In addition, 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. Attendance at the AAG meeting exceeded 7,000, a new record. |
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| Statistics and Climate Change at UN Oslo Conference | ||||
| April 17, 2008 CIESIN research associate Sonya Ahamed participated in a UN Conference on Climate Change and Official Statistics, held in Oslo, Norway April 14–16, and attended by approximately one hundred representatives of statistical agencies from around the world. She gave two presentations: “Why Demographic Data Are Not Up to the Challenge of Measuring Climate Risks, and What to Do about It” and “The Role of Spatial Data Infrastructure in Integrating Climate Change Information with a Focus on Monitoring Observed Climate Impacts.” Conference participants discussed how official statistics can contribute to the measurement and monitoring of the different aspects of climate change, and developed a proposed agenda for action to be submitted to the 40th session of the UN Statistical Commission for discussion and endorsement in 2009. See: UN Conference on Climate Change and Official Statistics |
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| Security-Environment Linkages Explored in Europe Talks | ||||
| April 12, 2008 |
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| First Steps Taken to Implement GEO Biodiversity Observation Network | ||||
April 10, 2008 |
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| International Studies Scholars Gather at San Francisco Conference | ||||
| March 29, 2008 CIESIN deputy director Marc Levy participated in a number of panels at the 2008 International Studies Association (ISA) meeting in San Francisco March 25-28. He chaired a panel on multilateral governance in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region, gave a presentation at a National Intelligence Council-sponsored panel on the challenges of policy-relevant interdisciplinary research, and participated in a roundtable discussion on new directions in water/conflict research. Prior to the ISA meeting, he attended a brainstorming session at the Pacific Institute in Oakland involving a number of groups working on water/conflict issues. See: 2008 ISA Convention |
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| New Article Highlights Value of Subnational-Level Data in Measuring Poverty | ||||
March 25, 2008 See: The Global Distribution of Infant Mortality (subscription only) |
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| Emerging Science and Technology Discussed at Cape Town Conference | ||||
March 22, 2008
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| CIESIN to Help Create Transnational Climate Change Governance Network | ||||
| March 20, 2008 Marc Levy, CIESIN deputy director, is part of a 15-member consortium that was recently awarded a grant from the United Kingdom-based Leverhulme Trust to create an international network on Transnational Climate Change Governance. The network will spend the next two and a-half years identifying patterns of transnational governance arrangements for climate change, developing a methodology for evaluating their significance, and conducting empirical research to explain variation in functions and effectiveness. The network will promote the creation of a research community built around a common database of transnational governance arrangements; technologies for sharing ideas, papers and information; and a series of workshops and conferences. The work will be integrated into ongoing debates on post-2012 climate change policy. The lead investigator for the consortium is Harriet Bulkeley, lecturer in the Durham University (UK) Department of Geography. |
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| CIESIN Attends UN Climate Change Expert Meeting | ||||
| March 18, 2008 CIESIN senior staff associate Alex de Sherbinin participated in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Expert Group Meeting on socioeconomic information under the Nairobi Work Programme on Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change (NWP), held March 10-12 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. He gave presentations on global and regional scale socioeconomic data and information and on information accessibility and availability, highlighting the various sustainability measures available through the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) operated by CIESIN. See: UNFCCC Workshop Web site Meeting Report |
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| New Human Footprint Data Now Available | ||||
| March 17, 2008 CIESIN has released an updated version of The Human Footprint, a data set that aims to measure the extent of human influence on the Earth's surface. First produced in 2002 by CIESIN with the Wildlife Conservation Society, this new version of The Human Footprint uses updated data on human population density, land transformation, human access, electrical power infrastructure, and settlements. Urban boundaries are drawn from CIESIN’s urban population data (Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project (GRUMP)), which is more recent (circa 2000) and is also a better representation of urban boundaries than what was used in the first version. The population density data (Global Population of the World (GPWv3)), produced by the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) operated by CIESIN, also have a number of improvements over the data used in the earlier version. The roads data are more complete, particularly concerning roads in Africa and Latin America; a greater number of navigable rivers is included; and more extensive land cover data are used. Data available for download include the Human Influence Index, the Human Footprint, and the Last of the Wild data sets. |
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| Cross-Disciplinary Delegation from P.R. China Visits CIESIN, Columbia | ||||
March 3, 2008
A delegation of nine Chinese academics from the Northwest University for Nationalities in Lanzhou, People’s Republic of China, visited CIESIN on Friday, February 29. The group, headed by Zhao De’an, vice president of the university, included faculty from computer and information sciences, chemical engineering, biotechnology, geology, Islamic culture, fine arts, and gesarology (the study of the oral epic of the first Tibetan king, Gesar.) In his overview of the university activities, Prof. Zhao highlighted research on landslides and earthquakes, air pollution due to dust and industrial contaminants, respiratory diseases, hazard and risk modeling, and innovative information technology. The group discussed potential areas of collaboration with researchers from CIESIN, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO), and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI). Later in the day on the Morningside campus, Prof. Lan Quejia, a well-known Tibetan scholar and member of the Northwest faculty, presented a seminar on the King Gesar epic.
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| Metadata Training for Decision- and Policy-Making | ||||
| February 29, 2008 CIESIN senior metadata specialist, John Scialdone, is giving several presentations this week in Panama City, Panama at the “Training Institute on Information Management: Free and Open Access to and Use of Data and Information.” The Training Institute, held February 25–March 1, is sponsored by the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) and is focused on creating, managing, and sharing high-quality data and information for access across multiple communities, for use in decision making and policy. Scialdone’s presentations, co-authored with senior digital archivist Robert Downs, involve how CIESIN uses metadata and data interoperability standards to manage its data archive and provide access to data, applications, and information resources. CIESIN contributed to early versions of the IAI Data and Information System (IAI-DIS), which has since evolved into the IAI-DIS Portal. See: IAI-DIS Portal |
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| Climate Change Impacts and Data Discussed in Trinidad | ||||
| February 28, 2008 |
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| Resolving Data Integration Issues to Better Address Global Concerns | ||||
| February 24, 2008 Merging population characteristics with characteristics of climate, ecology, and place is one of the most challenging aspects of the integration of census and non-census data, according to CIESIN associate research scientist and demographer Susana Adamo. Issues related to this challenge were the basis for a presentation Adamo gave to the IPUMS International Workshop, “Global Integration of Population Microdata: Challenge for the 2010 Round,” held February 23 at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University. The presentation, “Synergies of a Global Microdata Collaboratory: Climate and Ecology,” examined these issues in the context of the evolution of several of CIESIN’s major global population data products—Gridded Population of the World (GPW v3), GRUMP, and the Low-Elevation Coastal Zone (LECZ) data based on GRUMP. Adamo focused on how to use this kind of data integration to address significant global issues, in particular, climate change. See: Climate and Ecology Presentation
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| New Study in Nature Maps Global Hotspots of Emerging Diseases | ||||
February 21, 2008
A new study appearing in the Feb. 21 issue of Nature presents the first scientific evidence that emerging diseases are on the rise and that zoonoses—diseases from wildlife—are the prime threat, due to encroachment of wild areas by human population growth and related impacts. CIESIN’s deputy director Marc Levy is a co-author of the study, “Global Trends in Emerging Infectious Diseases,” which built a predictive model by correlating population data from the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) operated by CIESIN with analysis of emerging diseases from 1940 to 2004. “Overlaying maps of where the zoonotic diseases have occurred, with population maps, allows a pattern of relationships to emerge,” says Levy, “and is a first step in prediction.” The result is a global map of emerging disease “hotspots” that shows a pattern of growing vulnerability to new diseases in rich as well as poor nations, with implications for further prediction and prevention. The study also offers insights into the role of conservation in preventing new diseases and the importance of reviewing approaches to allocation of public health resources in order to reduce risk. In addition to Levy and former CIESIN colleagues Deborah Balk and Adam Storeygard, now at Baruch College, CUNY and Brown University, respectively, the international research team included scientists from the Consortium Conservation Medicine (CCM) Wildlife Trust New York; The University of Georgia Odum School of Ecology; and The Institute of Zoology at The Zoological Society of London, where lead author of the study and former Earth Institute fellow Kate Jones is now senior fellow. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation. See: Nature article (subscription-only) |
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| CIESIN Participates in UN Advisory Group on Environment, Conflict, and Peacebuilding | ||||
| February 12, 2008 Deputy Director Marc Levy attended the initial meeting of the UN Environment Program’s Environment, Conflict, and Peacebuilding Expert Advisory Group in New York City February 11–12. The Advisory Group is a body of the UNEP Post-Conflict and Disaster Management Branch. Levy assisted in the review of draft documents aimed at improving consideration of environment and natural resources in UN peacebuilding activities, and participated in discussions with representatives of UN offices active in peacebuilding. See: UNEP Post-Conflict & Disaster Management Branch |
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| Conflict and Drought Relationships Explored in New Paper | ||||
| February 11, 2008 Chikara Onda, a sophomore at Columbia University, has published a research paper in the inaugural issue of the online journal of Columbia University, Consilience: The Journal of Sustainable Development, based on his summer internship at CIESIN in 2007. The paper, “The Effect of the Spatial Resolution of Conflict Data on the Analysis of Drought As a Local Determinant of Civil War Onset: Africa, 1980–2001,” analyzes the effects of improved spatial data on conflicts on understanding relationships between drought and civil war outbreak. Onda was a participant in the Earth Intern program for Columbia and Barnard undergraduates hosted by the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in June-August 2007, under the supervision of CIESIN deputy director Marc Levy. Consilience is a global, online publication dedicated to promoting interdisciplinary dialogue on sustainable development among students, professors, and practitioners. See: Paper: “The Effect of the Spatial Resolution of Conflict Data...” Press Release Summer Internship Programs |
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| CODATA Global Roads Data Development Working Group Established | ||||
| February 6, 2008 A Working Group on Global Roads Data Development has been established under the auspices of the Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA), with CIESIN senior staff associate Alex de Sherbinin named co-chair with Olivier Cottray of the United Nations World Food Programme in Rome. They will lead an international group in the development of a freely accessible spatial data set on inter-urban transport networks around the world, focused on developing countries. Members include representatives from China, Colombia, Italy, Japan, South Africa, the UK, and the US. The new working group stems from an October 2007 user workshop organized by CIESIN’s Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) in response to a perceived need for a global roads data set. Openly accessible spatial data on roads are becoming increasingly important for research and applications dealing with such issues as disaster response, land use, conservation, agricultural planning, and assessments of climate change impacts. See: CODATA Global Roads Data Development Working Group Global Roads Workshop |
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| Accra Meeting Looks at the Role of Spatial Data Analysis in Conflict Early Warning | ||||
January 30, 2008
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| CIESIN’s Poverty Mapping Web Site Rated Valuable Online Resource | ||||
January 30, 2008 CIESIN’s Global Poverty Mapping Project received high praise in the January 11 online issue of the Internet Scout Report. “A well-designed site…which can be used in a variety of settings,” the Global Distribution of Poverty Web site is noted for its collection of more than 300 maps documenting the geographic and biophysical conditions facing the poor. Users are encouraged to download the subnational and national poverty data sets available on the site and to explore Where the Poor Are: An Atlas of Poverty, an accessible publication of poverty maps and case histories that shows how poverty mapping data can be used to guide poverty interventions. The Internet Scout Report is a weekly Web service which identifies valuable online resources, according to criteria developed by a team of professional librarians. It was established in 1994 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. |
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| Land Degradation Indicators and Sustainability Issues Discussed in Bonn and Frankfurt | ||||
| January 28, 2008 |
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| 2008 Environmental Performance Index Released | ||||
January 23, 2008 The 2008 EPI ranks Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Costa Rica as the top five overall countries. Mali, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Angola, and Niger occupy the bottom five positions. The U.S. is ranked 39th, lower than most industrial countries. The Index also provides “peer group” rankings for each country, comparing performance of countries facing similar environmental challenges. These benchmarks allow easy tracking of leaders and laggards on an issue-by-issue and aggregate basis. The data also support efforts to identify “best practices” in the environmental realm. |
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| NGI Project Team Meets in Bangkok | ||||
January 16, 2008 CIESIN director Robert Chen joined a meeting led by the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) at the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA-ROAP) in Bangkok on January 14–15. The focus of the meeting was to refine plans and outcomes for the Asian risk assessment study recently launched by NGI with support from the Norwegian Foreign Ministry. The team meeting included staff from OCHA and other UN offices in Bangkok and researchers from the Peace Research Institute of Oslo (PRIO), the University of Geneva, and the Pacific Disaster Center. Columbia University scientists are providing expertise and assistance on seismic and drought hazards, population exposure, vulnerability assessment, conflict mapping, and data integration. |
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| Research Translation Workshop Planned for Fall 2008 | ||||
| January 15, 2008 A workshop, Understanding and Implementing Effective Research Translation, is planned for fall 2008. As part of the Columbia University Superfund Basic Research Program (SBRP) Research Translation Core (RTC), CIESIN will help organize and host the workshop for RTC program staff and scientists from 15 universities. The purpose is to strengthen collaboration among the RTCs and their partners in order to maximize the impact of SBRP research on public health. The workshop, which will take place on the Lamont Campus of Columbia University in Palisades, New York, is made possible through a supplemental grant award by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). See: Columbia SBRP |
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| Demographer Joins CIESIN | ||||
January 4, 2008 Susana Adamo has joined CIESIN as an associate research scientist, effective December 2007. A demographer, she received her PhD from the University of Texas and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Carolina Population Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Her dissertation was on migration and desertification in Argentine drylands. Originally from Argentina, she did fieldwork there recently on migration dynamics. Her undergraduate degree is in geography, with a masters in population studies. While at CIESIN, Adamo’s area of concentration will include the impacts of climate change on population distribution and migration; and the mapping of poverty and urbanization. |
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