National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis

The interest in the social and demographic aspects of environmental change and agricultural transformation has been growing steadily. At the same time, geographic information systems (GIS) have been embraced by many demographers and population geographers as “one of the most important enabling technologies in population geography” (Jones 1990). This has led to a number of studies and initiatives at various scales that explicitly focus on population dynamics in a spatial context. The material presented here is aimed at providing an overview of issues and options concerning the development of population related spatial databases that will be of use to the agricultural research community as well as in other population/environment applications. It is hoped that this paper will contribute to ongoing discussions regarding standards and guidelines for the development of spatial population databases which have been stimulated by the work of Clarke and Rhind (1992) and initiatives by CIESIN, UNEP/GRID, UNSD, the U.S. Census Bureau, NCGIA, and the WRI, among others.