As part of the FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations) project Land Degradation Assessments in Drylands (2006– 2010), it is intended to gain new insights into the spatial distribution and intensity of soil degradation as well as to investigate connections between degradation and agriculture, population pressures and poverty. To identify degraded soil, satellite recordings between 1981 and 2003 were analyzed for changes in vegetation in a study by Bai et al. Although the methodological approach to identifying soil degradation is fraught with a certain amount of uncertainty, researchers were able to identify regional hotspots of degradation, which provided grounds to carry out more in-depth and on-site investigations.

Links:

• Bai, D.L. Dent, L. Olsson, M.E. Schaepman (2008). Proxy global assessment of land degradation. Soil Use and Management. DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-2743.2008.00169.x.
• FAO - Land Degradation Assessment in Drylands

The working group of Kiel University’s Geographical Institute’s Coastal Risk and Sea Level Rise (CRSLR) was founded in 2008 as part of the Research Cluster of Excellence “Future Ocean” and deals with the physical and socio-economic effects of the changing oceans as well as the effects of climate change on the earth’s coastal regions. Besides investigations into changes in land use in coastal areas or changes in wetlands close to the coast, the working group also looks at forecasts for coastal populations for the 21st century and the risks to them as a result of rising sea levels

Links:

• CRSLR (Coastal Risk and Sea-level Rise Reseach Group)
• Neumann B, Vafeidis AT, Zimmermann J, Nicholls (2015). Future Coastal Population Growth and Exposure to Sea-Level Rise and Coastal Flooding - A Global Assessment.

Since its foundation in 1991, Germanwatch has been campaigning for sustainable development. At both locations in Berlin and Bonn, a total of 40 staff work in close cooperation with global development and environmental organizations, and on the basis of scientific analyses, in public relations, education and lobbying. While the starting point for the service was the situation of disadvantaged populations in countries in the South, the focus today lies on the global effects of policies of countries in the North. At the forefront of this are topics relating to the effects of climate change, food security and compliance with human rights of companies.

Links:

• Germanwatch e.V. - Globaler Klima-Risiko-Index 2017

The Global Land Matrix is a global and independent initiative. Its goal is to bring transparency to the worldwide business of land grabbing. The Land Matrix database contains investments from the year 2000 onwards and currently contains close to 1,000 entries, not including media reports. The crowdsourced database is supported and coordinated by many international organizations such as, for example, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (giz) (“German Association for International Cooperation”) as well as economic institutes. When interpreting the data it should be noted that these may not correspond 100 per cent to reality. Many deals could not be entered into the database due to a lack of information and in addition, some deals fall through.

Links:

• The Global Land Matrix

The Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC) was founded in Koblenz by the German Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG) in 1998. Under the supervision of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Centre promotes the exchange of hydrological data and information at a global level and supports the UN’s hydrological and climate-related programmes. In this respect, the GRDC consolidates data from more than 9,000 gauging stations in a central database and makes the results available at no charge for non-commercial purposes. Furthermore, global data sets on the spatial dimension of the largest river basins in the world are made available and kept up to date.

Links:

• The Global Runoff Data Centre - Major River Basins of the World

The GRanD (Global Reservoir and Dam) Database was built in the course of the Global Water System Project. The latest version contains information on over 6,852 dams worldwide as well as the corresponding reservoirs. Besides information on the height of the dams, storage volumes and the year in which they were completed, the database also provides information on the dammed river and the corresponding river basin.

Links:

• Global Water System Project - GWSP - GRanD Database
• Lehner, B., C. Reidy Liermann, C. Revenga, C. Vorosmarty, B. Fekete, P. Crouzet, P. Doll, M. Endejan, K. Frenken, J. Magome, C. Nilsson, J.C. Robertson, R. Rodel, N. Sindorf, and D. Wisser. 2011. Global Reservoir and Dam Database, Version 1 (GRanDv1): Reservoirs, Revision 01. Palisades, NY: NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). http://dx.doi.org/10.7927/H4HH6H08
• Lehner, B., C. Reidy Liermann, C. Revenga, C. Vörösmarty, B. Fekete, P. Crouzet, P. Döll, M. Endejan, K. Frenken, J. Magome, C. Nilsson, J.C. Robertson, R. Rodel, N. Sindorf, and D. Wisser. 2011. High-Resolution Mapping of the World's Reservoirs and Dams for Sustainable River-Flow Management. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 9 (9): 494-502.

Founded in 1961, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) is a NASA research institute based in New York. Since the 1980s, GISS has been counted among the word's leading research centres on modelling the atmosphere and climate research, with climate projections for the 21st century being among its key fields. In addition, under the aegis of the long-time director, James E. Hansen, analyses of global surface temperature variations have been developed from various data sets since the 1970s, which constitute a valuable contribution to the exploration of climate change.

Links:

• GISS Surface Temperature Analysis - GISTEMP
• Hansen, J., R. Ruedy, M. Sato, and K. Lo, 2010: Global surface temperature change.

Joint Research Center & PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency

The EDGAR database (Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research) is published by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) along with the Dutch Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL). The database calculates country emissions of all atmospheric gases, in particular of direct greenhouse gases. In addition, the database contains information on the total emissions for international shipping and air traffic.

Links:

• EDGARv4.3.2 - Emission Database for Global Atmospheric Research
• Janssens-Maenhout, G., Crippa, M., Guizzardi, D., Muntean, M., Schaaf, E., Olivier, J.G.J., Peters, J.A.H.W., Schure, K.M., Fossil CO2 and GHG emissions of all world countries, EUR 28766 EN,Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2017, ISBN 978-92-79-73207-2, doi:10.2760/709792, JRC107877.

The World Resource Institute (WRI) is a global research organization based in Washington, DC (United States) and also has offices in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and Europe. More than 450 staff work closely with political decision-makers to implement their ideas of an economic system that preserves and maintains resources. The range of projects goes from sustainable traffic concepts via pragmatic solutions for reducing CO2 to sustainable water management. As part of the Aqueduct project, the WRI also publishes indices on the current and forecast scarcity of water.

Links:

• WRI - Aqueduct Projected Water Stress Country Rankings 2015

Following theoretical studies on definition and categorization approaches, Carius et al. published in 2006 the "World Map of Environmental Conflicts", in which a larger number of case studies were examined for the first time. For this purpose, empirical data of conflicts were analyzed and systematically recorded in a database. Although no dominating types could be identified on a global scale, different regional environmental conflict types could be identified. The results of this study were also published in the WBGU flagship report "World in Transition: Climate Change as a Security Risk". The authors of the study point out that the number of conflicts studied is too low to provide a significant typology - most of the known environmental conflicts have not yet been scientifically studied.

Links:

• Carius, A., Tänzler, D. und Winterstein, J. (2006): Weltkarte von Umweltkonflikten: Ansätze zur Typologisierung. Expertise für das Hauptgutachten „Welt im Wandel: Sicherheitsrisiko Klimawandel“ {pdf} (German). Berlin: WBGU.

The ECC (Environment, Conflict and Cooperation) fact book, developed in the course of the G7 “A New Climate for Peace” report, illustrates the complex relationships between climate change, environmental change and state fragility through more than 100 case studies. The report, which involved several independent think tanks from Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the United States, analyzes the impact of climate change on the stability of states. The report resumes that climate change is one of the key security threats of the 21st century. The ECC fact book compares a total of 116 conflicts in terms of cause, intensity and impact.

Links:

• Ackva, Johannes; Benjamin Pohl, Adrien Detges, Camille Defard, Brooke Noorbergen, and Jannis Rustige 2015: The ECC Factbook. Berlin: adelphi.