Research Applications of Geospatial Data from the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC)

Many of the world’s greatest sustainability challenges require spatial data as part of the search for solutions. The Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) is one of 12 NASA Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs). Unlike most DAACs, which distribute data from NASA’s remote sensing instruments, SEDAC develops and disseminates spatial and tabular data on the distribution of population, settlements, infrastructure, human wellbeing, and variables related to environmental sustainability. In this presentation I will describe my own research applications of SEDAC to answer a number of questions. Examples include use of spatial data on child malnutrition in Africa to understand its environmental covariates; spatial data for indicator development; mapping population and settlements in relation to climate hazards; understanding patterns of poverty in relation to protected areas; integration of SEDAC and remote sensing data for climate vulnerability mapping; use of population data and indirect estimation techniques to calculate the number of migrants by ecosystem globally from 1970-2000; and use of population data layers in a gravity model to project the number of climate migrants to 2050. The goal is to expose participants to the range of SEDAC data and their potential for use in scientific research on climate and sustainability topics.