This paper introduces a new and comprehensive Human Development Index (HDI) trends dataset for 135 countries and 40 years of annual data. We apply this dataset to answer several empirical questions related to the evolution of human development over the last 40 years. The data reveal overall...

Policies are arising around the world, most recently in the United States, that mandate the implementation of marine spatial planning as a practical pathway towards ecosystem-based management. In the new United States ocean policy, and several other cases around the globe, ecosystem services are...

There is currently a rare opportunity to inform emerging efforts to implement coastal and marine spatial planning (CMSP) in the United States, Europe and elsewhere around the world. In particular, the newly formed US National Ocean Council is developing a strategic action plan for CMSP over the...

Despite the widely accepted need for ecosystem-based management of coastal and marine systems, many managers struggle with how to put these principles into practice. Commonly voiced concerns include complicated and expensive implementation, prohibitive data requirements, and lack of testing with...

Our study focuses on uncertainty in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from anthropogenic sources, including land use and land-use change activities. We aim to understand the relevance of diagnostic (retrospective) and prognostic (prospective) uncertainty in an emissions-temperature setting that...

A methodology for the GIS (Geographic Information System) based analysis of DH (District Heating) potentials is introduced and applied to the continental United States. The energy demand for space heating and hot water in the residential and commercial sector is assessed and spatially allocated...

In March 2014 the UN World Health Organization (World Health Organization, 2014), released a study reporting that in 2012 one in eight of global deaths were a result of air pollution exposure. As part of a long-term effort, in late 2013, the European Commission (EC) adopted the "The Clean Air...

This article provides further detail on expected global GHG emission levels in 2020, based on the Emissions Gap Report (United Nations Environment Programme, December 2010), assuming the emission reduction proposals in the Copenhagen Accord and Cancun Agreements are met. Large differences are...

The recent announcement by the USA to withdraw their support for the Kyoto Protocol has drawn attention to the conditions under which the Protocol will enter into force: at least 55 member states to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have to ratify the Protocol,...