Atlas of the Biosphere

The Atlas of the Biosphere is a product of the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE), part of the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. The goal is to provide more information about the environment, and human interactions with the environment, than any other source.

The Atlas provides maps of an ever-growing number of environmental variables, under the following categories:

Human Impacts (Humans and the environment from a socio-economic perspective; i.e., Population, Life Expectancy, Literacy Rates);

Land Use (How humans are using the land; i.e., Croplands, Pastures, Urban Lands);

Ecosystems (The natural ecosystems of the world; i.e., Potential Vegetation, Temperature, Soil Texture); and

Water Resources (Water in the biosphere; i.e., Runoff, Precipitation, Lakes and Wetlands).

Map coverages are global and regional in spatial extent. Users can download map images (jpg) and data (a GIS grid of the data in ESRI ArcView Format), and can view metadata online.