MEDIS: spatial data for Mediterranean islands

The intrinsic characteristics of islands make them unique for studying ecological and evolutionary dynamics. The Mediterranean Basin, a biodiversity hotspot, is rich in islands, hosting a significant global biodiversity proportion. Despite extensive research, a comprehensive spatial dataset for these islands is lacking. This study presents the first comprehensive spatial dataset of all Mediterranean islands larger than 0.01 km2, aiding ecological investigations and interdisciplinary research on economic, environmental, and social issues. The MEDIS spatial dataset offers detailed information on 36 geographic, climatic, ecological, and land-use variables, including island area, perimeter, isolation metrics, climatic space, terrain data, land cover, paleogeography, road networks, and geological information, providing a multifaceted view of each island's characteristics. The study encompasses 2212 islands in the Mediterranean Basin larger than 0.01 km2. The spatial grain varies, with datase..., , , # MEDIS: spatial data for Mediterranean islands

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.b8gtht7k5](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.b8gtht7k5)

This repository contains the MEDIS dataset as well as the R scripts and files necessary to create the MEDIS database.

The \"data\" directory includes the spatial layer featuring island names and IDs (island_polygons.gpkg), alongside several subdirectories housing auxiliary files used for variable extraction. Climatic variables must be downloaded only once using the cumpute_climate.R script.

## Description of the data and file structure

The complete dataset is provided in a .GeoJSON format, with reference system ETRS89-extended / LAEA Europe (EPSG: 3035). A complete list of all the variables can be consulted in the table below.

| Name | Type of variable | Unit of measure | Source | Description ...