The Human-Earth Atlas brings together observation-based data on our planet, including both human and non-human components, in a common, gridded format.
Why is this useful? Data for the human part of our planet are typically provided at the scale of countries (panel a), while data on the rest of our planet often comes in geospatial grids (panel b). This fundamental division perpetuates the false dichotomy of people vs. nature, and gets in the way of human-Earth system science.
The Human-Earth Atlas supports research on the Human-Earth system by making it easy and convenient to explore, make calculations, and produce publication-quality figures with both human and non-human data.
For example, the Atlas makes it easy to compare spatial changes in building mass over time with local temperature.
The Atlas was assembled using the SESAME python toolbox, which also includes functions for plotting and working with the data, available for download from Github here (also available for direct download as a pypi package here).
Documentation paper: Faisal et al. Scientific Data, 2025.
The Human-Earth Atlas is provided in netcdf format, which can be analyzed using many types of software (including the SESAME python package). The atlas is organized by sphere, and all data are provided on a regular grid of 1° or 0.25°.
Download the Atlas from Figshare here!