SES Datasets
This page provides a list of commonly-used datasets, which may be relevant to SES methods
SES Foundations
SES Methods
CONTRIBUTE
This page provides a summary of existing datasets commonly used in SES research, and the platforms where they can be sourced.
As with other choices in SES research, the way in which SES researchers engage with data will depend on the purpose of their research, the motivation of the researchers, the theories and frameworks they employ, their guiding methodology and the available funding. Please let us know if you would like to suggest a key dataset you think should be included here. We encourage globally relevant databases, rather than local datasets.
TYPE | NAME | DESCRIPTION | SOURCE |
Biodiversity data | IUCN Red list of Species and Ecosystems | Spatial distribution, ecological and threat data on species and ecosystems | |
Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (Predicts) | A collaborative project aiming to use a meta-analytic approach to investigate how local biodiversity typically responds to human pressures such as land-use change, pollution, invasive species and infrastructure, and ultimately improve our ability to predict future biodiversity changes | ||
Living Planet | The Living Planet Index (LPI) is a measure of the state of global biological diversity based on population trends of vertebrate species from around the world | ||
Map of life | Occurrence records & expert range maps for more than 800,000 species of amphibians, birds, mammals, reptiles, insects & plants | ||
Nature Map Explorer | Nature Map Explorer provides a set of integrated global maps on biodiversity and ecosystems services based on the best available scientific data | ||
Global Biodiversity Information Facility | Species Occurrence records for amphibians, birds, mammals & reptiles (>400 million records) | ||
Case study databases | Social and Ecological Meta-Analysis Database (SESMAD) | SES Case studies. The goal of the SESMAD database is to enable highly comparable case analyses of a diversity of social-ecological systems | |
SES Library | The SES Library contains descriptions of social-ecological systems (SES) and coupled infrastructure systems (CIS) from around the world | ||
Regime Shift Database | The Regime Shifts DataBase provides examples of different types of regime shifts that have been documented in social-ecological systems. The database focuses specifically on regime shifts that have large impacts on ecosystem services, and therefore on human well-being | ||
Engage2020 Action Catalogue | Methods for leading research participatory activities | ||
Thresholds Database | Thresholds and Regime Shifts in Ecological and Social-Ecological Systems. A Resilience Alliance & Santa Fe Institute database | ||
Digital Library of the commons | Free and open-access to full-text articles, papers and dissertations | ||
Biosphere Futures | Database of social-ecological scenarios | ||
Climate | Climate Variability and predictability database (CLIVAR) | The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) facilitates analysis and prediction of Earth system change for use in a range of practical applications of direct relevance, benefit and value to society | |
ISeeChange | Participatory database on climate change impacts | ||
Development and livelihood data | World Bank | Global Development Data | |
Food & Agricultural Organisation (FAO) | Several databases spanning many development and biophysical topics (e.g. agriculture, fisheries and forestry production; gender and land rights; commodities prices) with a focus on agriculture, water and health | ||
CIFOR's Poverty and Environment Network (PEN) global dataset | The PEN network was launched in September 2004 by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) with the aim of collecting uniform socio-economic and environmental data at household and village levels in rural areas of developing countries | ||
USAID demographic and health surveys (DHS) | The USAID’s demographic and health survey (DHS) has collected, analysed and disseminated accurate and representative data on population, health, HIV and nutrition through more than 300 surveys in over 90 countries | ||
USAID Development Data Library | Data used in strategic planning, design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of USAID’s programs. It includes data related to democracy, human rights and governance, economic growth, education and social services, health, humanitarian assistance, peace and security and program development and oversight. | ||
FLARE network (Forests & Livelihoods: Assessment, Research, and Engagement) Databases | The International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) Network is a collective of research partners at 12 universities or non-governmental organizations in 11 countries around the world that focus on how institutions and governance arrangements shape forest use and management outcomes. Their webpage includes governance and livelihoods data | ||
World Resource Institute data platforms and datasets | Datasets and databases focused on climate, energy, food, forests, water, cities and the ocean | ||
Comtrade | UN Comtrade is a repository of official international trade statistics and relevant analytical tables. All data is accessible through API. On the Lab page there are links to circa 20 other organizations (e.g. MIT, Chatham House) that analyse many types of resource flows data (e.g illicit financial flows, energy in the Asian Pacific): https://comtrade.un.org/labs/ | ||
Global-AEZ | Global Agro-Ecological Zones Project assesses natural resources to find suitable land utilisation options | ||
Human impact | Global Human Footprint | The Global Human Footprint Index represents the relative human influence in each terrestrial biome, expressed as a percentage and topographic basemap | |
JRC global human settlement layers | The Global Human Settlement (GHS) framework produces global spatial information about the human presence on the planet over time. This in the form of built up maps, population density maps and settlement maps | ||
Global Human Modification Map | The global Human Modification map (HM) provides a cumulative measure of human modification of terrestrial lands across the globe at a 1-km resolution. It is a continuous 0-1 metric that reflects the proportion of a landscape modified based on modeling the physical extents of 13 anthropogenic stressors and their estimated impacts using spatially-explicit global datasets | ||
Hyde database | History database of the Global Environment which creates historical trends of various indicators, for the past 12,000 years | ||
Anthropogenic Biomes | Classification of globally significant ecological patterns created by humans | ||
Models and methods | Engage2020 Action Catalogue | An online decision-support tool for methods | |
Bayesian Network Models | Models used for Netica Bayesian Networks | ||
COMSES (Netlogo) models | A collection of computational models from the social and ecological sciences with many social-ecological models | ||
Other | Dataset Search | Google’s search engine for datasets | |
Protected areas | Protected Planet | Datasource of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures | |
Protected Area downgrading, downsizing and degazettement (PADDD) | Global data on legal changes to protected areas | ||
Remotely sensed data and global spatial data | NASA’s Socioeconomic Data and Applications Centre | A Data Center in NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS). Includes several social, ecological and economic datasets and indices | |
Microsoft AI for Earth | Remotely-sensed and biophysical global datasets | ||
Marine Spatial Data | Raster based marine data | ||
World Resource Institute | Collection of datasets on themes such as climate, energy, forests, agriculture, biodiversity | ||
Water | Water Footprint Network | Statistics on green, blue and grey water footprints of crops, derived crop products, biofuels, livestock products, and industrial products. All data are available at national and sub-national level. The FAO has a database too – Aquastat PIK - LpJ | |
GWP IWRM ToolBox | Tools, case studies and reference about integrated water management |
TYPE | NAME | DESCRIPTION | SOURCE |
Biodiversity data | IUCN Red list of Species and Ecosystems | Spatial distribution, ecological and threat data on species and ecosystems. | |
Biodiversity data | Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (Predicts) | A collaborative project aiming to use a meta-analytic approach to investigate how local biodiversity typically responds to human pressures such as land-use change, pollution, invasive species and infrastructure, and ultimately improve our ability to predict future biodiversity changes | |
Biodiversity data | Living Planet | The Living Planet Index (LPI) is a measure of the state of global biological diversity based on population trends of vertebrate species from around the world | |
Biodiversity data | Map of life | Occurrence records & expert range maps for more than 800,000 species of amphibians, birds, mammals, reptiles, insects & plants | |
Biodiversity data | Nature Map Explorer | Nature Map Explorer provides a set of integrated global maps on biodiversity and ecosystems services based on the best available scientific data | |
Biodiversity data | Global Biodiversity Information Facility | Species Occurrence records for amphibians, birds, mammals & reptiles (>400 million records) | |
Case study databases | Social and Ecological Meta-Analysis Database (SESMAD) | SES Case studies. The goal of the SESMAD database is to enable highly comparable case analyses of a diversity of social-ecological systems | |
Case study databases | SES Library | The SES Library contains descriptions of social-ecological systems (SES) and coupled infrastructure systems (CIS) from around the world. | |
Case study databases | Regime Shift Database | The Regime Shifts DataBase provides examples of different types of regime shifts that have been documented in social-ecological systems. The database focuses specifically on regime shifts that have large impacts on ecosystem services, and therefore on human well-being | |
Case study databases | Engage2020 Action Catalogue | Methods for leading research participatory activities | |
Case study databases | Thresholds Database | Thresholds and Regime Shifts in Ecological and Social-Ecological Systems. A Resilience Alliance & Santa Fe Institute database | |
Case study databases | Digital Library of the commons | Free and open-access to full-text articles, papers and dissertations | |
Case study databases | Biosphere Futures | Database of social-ecological scenarios | |
Climate | Climate Variability and predictability database (CLIVAR) | The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) facilitates analysis and prediction of Earth system change for use in a range of practical applications of direct relevance, benefit and value to society | |
Climate | ISeeChange | Participatory database on climate change impacts | |
Development and livelihood data | World Bank | Global Development Data | |
Development and livelihood data | Food & Agricultural Organisation (FAO) | Several databases spanning many development and biophysical topics (e.g. agriculture, fisheries and forestry production; gender and land rights; commodities prices) with a focus on agriculture, water and health | |
Development and livelihood data | CIFOR's Poverty and Environment Network (PEN) global dataset | The PEN network was launched in September 2004 by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) with the aim of collecting uniform socio-economic and environmental data at household and village levels in rural areas of developing countries | |
Development and livelihood data | USAID demographic and health surveys (DHS) | The USAID’s demographic and health survey (DHS) has collected, analysed and disseminated accurate and representative data on population, health, HIV and nutrition through more than 300 surveys in over 90 countries | |
Development and livelihood data | USAID Development Data Library | Data used in strategic planning, design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of USAID’s programs. It includes data related to democracy, human rights and governance, economic growth, education and social services, health, humanitarian assistance, peace and security and program development and oversight | |
Development and livelihood data | FLARE network (Forests & Livelihoods: Assessment, Research, and Engagement) Databases | The International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) Network is a collective of research partners at 12 universities or non-governmental organizations in 11 countries around the world that focus on how institutions and governance arrangements shape forest use and management outcomes.Their webpage includes governance and livelihoods data | |
Development and livelihood data | World Resource Institute data platforms and datasets | Datasets and databases focused on climate, energy, food, forests, water, cities and the ocean | |
Development and livelihood data | Comtrade | UN Comtrade is a repository of official international trade statistics and relevant analytical tables. All data is accessible through API. On the Lab page there are links to circa 20 other organizations (e.g. MIT, Chatham House) that analyse many types of resource flows data (e.g illicit financial flows, energy in the Asian Pacific): https://comtrade.un.org/labs/ | |
Development and livelihood data | Global-AEZ | Global Agro-Ecological Zones Project assesses natural resources to find suitable land utilisation options | |
Human impact | Global Human Footprint | The Global Human Footprint Index represents the relative human influence in each terrestrial biome, expressed as a percentage and topographic basemap | |
Human impact | JRC global human settlement layers | The Global Human Settlement (GHS) framework produces global spatial information about the human presence on the planet over time. This in the form of built up maps, population density maps and settlement maps | |
Human impact | Global Human Modification Map | The global Human Modification map (HM) provides a cumulative measure of human modification of terrestrial lands across the globe at a 1-km resolution. It is a continuous 0-1 metric that reflects the proportion of a landscape modified based on modeling the physical extents of 13 anthropogenic stressors and their estimated impacts using spatially-explicit global datasets | |
Human impact | Hyde database | History database of the Global Environment which creates historical trends of various indicators, for the past 12,000 years | |
Human impact | Anthropogenic Biomes | Classification of globally significant ecological patterns created by humans | |
Models and methods | Engage2020 Action Catalogue | An online decision-support tool for methods | |
Models and methods | Bayesian Network Models | Models used for Netica Bayesian Networks | |
Models and methods | COMSES (Netlogo) models | A collection of computational models from the social and ecological sciences with many social-ecological models | |
Other | Dataset Search | Google’s search engine for datasets | |
Protected areas | Protected Planet | Datasource of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures | |
Protected areas | Protected Area downgrading, downsizing and degazettement (PADDD) | Global data on legal changes to protected areas | |
Remotely sensed data and global spatial data | NASA’s Socioeconomic Data and Applications Centre | A Data Center in NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS). Includes several social, ecological and economic datasets and indices | |
Remotely sensed data and global spatial data | Microsoft AI for Earth | Remotely-sensed and biophysical global datasets | |
Remotely sensed data and global spatial data | Marine Spatial Data | Raster based marine data | |
Remotely sensed data and global spatial data | World Resource Institute | Collection of datasets on themes such as climate, energy, forests, agriculture, biodiversity | |
Water | Water Footprint Network | Statistics on green, blue and grey water footprints of crops, derived crop products, biofuels, livestock products, and industrial products. All data are available at national and sub-national level. The FAO has a database too – Aquastat PIK - LpJ | |
Water | GWP IWRM ToolBox | Tools, case studies and reference about integrated water management |