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GEO Data Portal

http://geodata.grid.unep.ch/

The GEO Data Portal, launched in May 2002, is the authoritative source for data sets used by UNEP and its partners in the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) report and other integrated environment assessments. Its on-line database holds more than 400 different variables, as national, regional and subregional statistics or as geospatial data sets (maps).

The GEO reporting process is based on sound empirical analysis and the contributions of a global network of partners. It thus requires having readily at hand - meaning, via the Internet and off-line - a wide range of statistical and geo-spatial data sets that meet as much as possible the following requirements:
- offering world-wide coverage, but with data at the national level;
- characterised by harmonised data values, collection units and definitions;
- available for every year since 1970 to coincide with the GEO "retrospective" period;
- freely and easily accessible to GEO contributors and broader user community; and
- offering aggregated values for the sub-regional, regional and global levels.

The contents of the GEO Data Portal are guided by the data strategy for the GEO process, and can be related to: (i) societal driving forces (economic development, population); (ii) environmental pressures (emissions, pollution); (iii) state-of-the-environment (air, land and water); and (iv) impacts on natural ecosystems and human health (biodiversity loss, diseases, life expectancy etc.). Thus, the Data Portal hosts data sets such as: population size and growth, educational enrollment, GDP per capita, land cover, CO2 and other green-house gas emissions, natural disasters and many, many more.

Apart from the basic service of making core data sets available to the GEO user community, additional functionality has been added to strengthen the analytical capacity of the network of GEO Collaborating Centres and other key partners. This includes the development of:
- Graphs to show and explore the evolution ('trend') of a variable over a given time period for a specific country or region;
- Histograms to highlight the absolute distribution of values for certain parts of the world;
- Extreme values for a given variable, by displaying the range of minimum and maximum values.

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Last Update 12 Sep 2007