Environmental Sustainability
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Compendium of Environmental Sustainability Indicator Collections (v.1.1)
Introduction | Data and Metadata | Citations | Disclaimer | Map Gallery
Introduction
There have been a number of initiatives in recent years to generate indicators of national-level sustainability, resilience and vulnerability, yet obtaining the data behind these efforts is often difficult. Even where data are publicly available for download, combining them with other indicators or ingesting them into other databases can be problematic. Through this compendium SEDAC has sought to make the acquisition, comparison and analysis of sustainability indicators easier by compiling them in a single database, incorporating multiple country codes, and condensing the indicator descriptions into short methodological summaries in an accompanying metadata database.
At present the compendium includes 426 indicators from the following six collections:
- 2006 Environmental Performance Index (EPI)
- 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI)
- 2004 Environmental Vulnerability Index (EVI)
- Rio to Johannesburg Dashboard of Sustainability
- The Wellbeing of Nations
- 2006 National Footprint Accounts (Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity)
Note that, with two exceptions, we have attempted to maintain the integrity of these collections, even in cases where separate collections may share the same or similar indicators. The exceptions are the Rio to Jo’burg and Wellbeing of Nations collections, in which we selected only the environmentally relevant indicators, removing from consideration indicators focusing primarily on social or econonomic sustainability. Users desiring fuller documentation on the underlying assumptions and methodological details of any of the above indicator collections are encouraged to obtain the original reports (see citations section below).
The compendium also incorporates useful ancillary data such as region name, dummy variables for landlocked countries and small island states, population, GDP, and land area.
Data and Data Dictionary
Data: The complete compendium of 426 indicators and 38 ancillary variables is available for download in comma-separated values (CSV), SPSS and Stata formats bundled in a zip file. The individual collections are available in the same formats. Please note that these zip files contain no data dictionaries - metadata must be downloaded separately (below). (PC users: Right-click on the links below and select "Save target as..." to save the file to your computer.)
- Complete compendium (464 variables) (641 KB zip file)
- 2006 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) (74 KB zip file)
- 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) (132 KB zip file)
- 2004 Environmental Vulnerability Index (EVI) (187 KB zip file)
- Rio to Johannesburg Dashboard of Sustainability (53 KB zip file)
- The Wellbeing of Nations (107 KB zip file)
- 2006 National Footprint Accounts (55 KB zip file)
- Ancillary data (132 KB zip file)
Data Dictionary: A data dictionary for all indicators and ancillary variables is available for download in Word, PDF, and Microsoft Access formats. The metadata include indicator code, indicator name, collection name, sub-index name (if the indicator is part of a collection sub-index), date, units of measurement, source and methodology. (PC users: Right-click on the links below and select "Save target as..." to save the file to your computer.)
- SEDAC Compendium Data Dictionary (MS Access Database; 1.7 MB zip)
- SEDAC Compendium Data Dictionary (MS Word; 2.1 MB)
- SEDAC Compendium Data Dictionary (PDF, 1.2 MB)
Metadata: Click here for FGDC-compliant metadata for the entire collection.
Citations and Acknowledgements
Esty, Daniel C., Marc A. Levy, Tanja Srebotnjak, Alexander de Sherbinin, Christine H. Kim, and Bridget Anderson (2006). Pilot 2006 Environmental Performance Index. New Haven: Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy.
Esty, Daniel C., Marc Levy, Tanja Srebotnjak, and Alexander de Sherbinin (2005). 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index: Benchmarking National Environmental Stewardship. New Haven: Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy.
Kaly, Ursula L., Craig R. Pratt and Jonathan Mitchell (2004). The Demonstration Environmental Vulnerability Index (EVI) 2004. SOPAC Technical Report 384.
O'Connor, John and Jochen Jesinghaus (2002). Data from the Rio to Johannesburg Dashboard of Sustainability. Software tool distributed at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Prescott-Allen, Robert (2001). The Wellbeing of Nations: A Country-by-Country Index of Quality of Life and the Environment. Washington, DC: Island Press.
2006 National Footprint Accounts
Global Footprint Network (2006). National Footprint Accounts, 2006 Edition. http://www.footprintnetwork.org
Acknowledgements: The original data for the Compendium of Environmental Sustainability Indicators were kindly provided by the following sources: 2006 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) and & 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) - Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and CIESIN, Columbia University; 2004 Environmental Vulnerability Index (EVI) - Jonathan Mitchell, South Pacific Applied Geosciences Council (SOPAC); Rio to Johannesburg Dashboard of Sustainability - John O'Connor and Jochen Jesinghaus; The Wellbeing of Nations - Robert Prescott-Allen and Island Press; 2006 Ecological Footprint - Justin Kitzes and Steven Goldfinger of the GLobal Footprint Network; Population Data - Thomas Buetner, United Nations Population Division; GDP Data - World Bank World Development Indicators; GDP per capita data - CIA World Factbook 2005; land area data - Greg Yetman, CIESIN.
Disclaimer
The term "country" as utilized in this compendium does not imply, on the part of CIESIN, the Trustees of Columbia University, NASA, or the original data providers any judgment on the legal status of any territory, or any endorsement or acceptance of boundaries.
