The Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) is a center within the Earth Institute at Columbia University. CIESIN works at the intersection of the social, natural, and information sciences, and specializes in on-line data and information management, spatial data integration and training, and interdisciplinary research related to human interactions in the environment.

How Many People Affected by a Hazard—Updated Service Provides Answers

The updated Population Estimation Service uses data from the Gridded Population of the World version 4 (GPWv4) data collection to quickly obtain estimates of the number of people residing in an area defined by the user.

If you've ever wondered how many people might be affected by an earthquake or tsunami, or what the total population is in a major metropolitan region, the new version of the Population Estimation Service (PES) can provide you with those answers. The PES is a Web-based service that enables mapping tools to quickly obtain estimates of the number of people residing in an area of interest, without having to download and analyze large amounts of spatial data. The latest version of PES, available through the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) operated by CIESIN, draws on data from SEDAC′s recently released Gridded Population of the World, version 4 (GPWv4) data collection. It provides population estimates and associate statistics for the years 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020. A new client application, the SEDAC Population Estimator, enables users to draw a polygon or circle around an area of interest, and then obtain an estimate of the population in 2015 living in that area. Other SEDAC mapping tools such as the HazPop mobile app also utilize the updated PES, supporting analysis and visualization of population data in conjunction with remote sensing imagery and other types of data such as the location of critical infrastructure. The PES was first released in 2010.