Asia Population Database Documentation
Authored by Uwe Deichmann
National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis
University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Contact by email
Last edition by
UNEP/DEIA/GRID-Geneva : 3 May 1996
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: Boundary and population data
Discussion of data sources
Population projections
Data quality estimates
Part II: Raster data
Gridding approach
Implementation specifics and output products
Evaluation
References
Mirror download sites available at:
GRID-Arendal
Appendixes
Summary table and images
Country-specific documentation
Attribute definitions in the boundary data sets
The development of this database was supported by the United Nations Environment Programme/
Global Resource Information Database (UNEP/GRID) and the Consultative Group for
International Agricultural Research (CGIAR),in the context of the UNEP/CGIAR
Initiative on the Use of GIS in Agricultural Research. Additional support and
facilitieswere provided by the National
Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA).
The current database builds upon earlier work at NCGIA described in:
"Tobler, W., U. Deichmann, J. Gottsegen and K. Maloy (1995), The
global demography project, Technical
Report 95-6, NCGIA, Santa Barbara."
The global demography project was supported by the Consortium for
International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), the Environmental
Systems Research Institute, Inc., and NCGIA.
Other groups participating in or supporting this effort include:
United Nations
Statistics Division, Software Development Project, New York
UNEP/DEIA/GRID -Geneva,
-Sioux Falls, - Tsukuba
Department of
Geography, Birkbeck College, London
Consortium International for Earth Science
Information Network, Saginaw, Michigan
East-West Center,
Program on Population, Honolulu
Mekong River Commission, Vientiane,and University of Bern (CH)
National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C.
The Asian administrative boundaries and population database is
part of an ongoing effort to improve global, spatially referenced demographic
data holdings. Such databases are useful for a variety of applications including
strategic-level agricultural research and applications in the analysis of the
human dimensions of global change. While the private sector is addressing some
of this need for spatial data by marketing georeferenced demographic databases
for developed and some large developing countries (e.g., Mexico or India),
administrative boundaries and population figures for many countries are still
hard to obtain. This project (which has been carried out as a cooperative
activity between NCGIA, CGIAR and UNEP/GRID between Oct. 1995 and present) has
pooled available data sets, many of which had been assembled for the global
demography project. All data were checked, international boundaries and
coastlines were replaced with a standard template, the attribute database was
redesigned, and new, more reliable population estimates for subnational units
were produced for all countries. From the resulting data sets, raster surfaces
representing population distribution and population density were created in
collaboration between NCGIA and GRID-Geneva.
This documentation provides important information about the databases.
Part I describes the development of data layers of administrative boundaries with
population totals. This section gives general background information on data
sources and estimation procedures. It also discusses the limitations of the
database which should be kept in mind in any application. Part II presents the
methodology used for constructing a set of gridded data layers of population
distribution. Finally, a table containing summary information and images of
administrative boundaries and population densities is presented in the appendix
which also provides detailed data source information and processing steps for
each country.
[ Boundary and population data... || UNEP/GRID-Sioux Falls ]
