Human Dimensions Information

The Environmental Performance Index ranks how well countries perform on high-priority environmental issues in two broad policy areas: protection of human health from environmental harm and protection of ecosystems. The 2014 Environmental Performance Index is now available.

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Global Anthropogenic Biomes, also known as "anthromes" or "human biomes", describe the terrestrial biosphere in its contemporary, human-altered form using global ecosystem units defined by patterns of sustained direct human interaction.

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Gridded Population of the World depicts the distribution of human population across the globe. A newly updated Version 4 for the GPW data product will be available in the next few months.

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Spatial distribution of net primary productivity (NPP)

NPP is how much carbon dioxide (CO₂) vegetation takes in during photosynthesis minus how much CO₂ the plants release during respiration.

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The Population, Landscape, And Climate Estimates, Version 3 (PLACE III) data set contains estimates of country-level aggregations for 232 countries and United Nations (UN) designated territories across a range of physical characteristics.

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Gridded Population of the World Great Lakes area shows population density around lakes. The two darkest areas are Chicago and Detroit. A newly updated Version 4 for the GPW data product will be available in the next few months.

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These 2 images compare the Northeast Corridor of the US, (left) population density from NASA's Socioeconomic Data and Application Center's (SEDAC’s) 2010 GPW dataset with (right) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) 2012 data, ngdc.noaa.gov/eog.

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