Latin America and Caribbean Population Database Documentation

The methodology and documentation for the Latin America and Caribbean Population Database are based on earlier work for Africa and Asia by Uwe Deichmann. The database was prepared by:

Glenn Hyman, Andy Nelson and German Lema

International Center for Tropical Agriculture

A.A. 6713, Cali, Colombia

gislab@cgiar.org

Gene Fosnight and Ashbindu Singh

United Nations Environment Program

Eros Data Center

Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Uwe Deichmann
World Bank

Washington DC
udeichmann@worldbank.org

Last edition by UNEP/DEIA/GRID-Sioux Falls:3 November 2000

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

• Appendixes

  • Country totals comparison
  • Resolution of the Latin America and Caribbean Population Database
  • Country-specific documentation

Acknowledgments

The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP/GRID Sioux Falls, UNEP/GRID Arendal), and the World Resources Institute (WRI) provided funding and support for the development of this database. We are grateful for the cooperation of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC), the World Bank and all the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean that supported this effort.

Introduction

The Latin America and Caribbean Population Database project fulfills the UNEP/GRID goal of providing digital population maps for the major developing world regions.  This project follows as closely as possible the design and methodology of the previously-developed Asian and African databases. The gridded population database was derived from over 10,000 administrative units and 1300 populated places.

The documentation follows the same format as that developed for the Asian and African data sets. Part 1 discusses the boundary and population data sources. The methods to make population projections and data quality issues are discussed in the following sections. Part 2 describes the methods for developing the raster population distribution surfaces. This section follows with comments on the modeling process and an evaluation of the results. The appendices include information on data resolution and quality, data sources for population and administrative boundary information.

Boundary and population data... / Any comments or questions to