Methods & data

Where every number on this atlas comes from.

This page is the full inventory: each dataset we read, who publishes it, what period it covers, how coarse it is, how we joined it to Church geography, what it cannot tell you, and under what licence it is reused. Pilot-phase figures on the atlas are demonstration values drawn from these series.

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How we work

01

Plain language on top, provenance underneath

Every figure on the atlas is written first as a sentence anyone can read, then backed by a source note giving the dataset, its vintage, its resolution and what it cannot tell you. Nothing is asserted without a traceable series behind it.

02

Global data, diocesan geography

Environmental grids are area-weighted onto diocesan polygons; anything about people is population-weighted instead, so a large empty diocese is not treated as though its whole area were inhabited.

03

Uncertainty is stated, not hidden

Where a value is modelled, coarse, or out of date, the interface says so in words. A reading with a stated margin is more useful than a confident number with none.

04

Absence is not inaction

The platform registry is voluntary and incomplete. A diocese missing from the map has not yet enrolled — it says nothing about the ecological work happening there.

Geographic base

All aggregation runs against one boundary set. Every environmental figure quoted per diocese inherits its limitations.

GoodLands / Catholic Geographic Information Systems

Global diocesan boundaries

Covers: 2019, 1:3M scale
Resolution: Diocese polygon
How it is computed: All gridded environmental data is area-weighted onto these polygons; population-linked data is population-weighted.
What it cannot tell you: At 1:3M scale, small urban dioceses and coastlines are generalised. Boundaries changed since 2019 are not reflected.
Licence: CC BY-ND 4.0

Open the source

Environmental and social layers

The data drawn on the map when a theme is chosen. Each one maps to one or more of the seven Laudato Si’ Goals.

Hansen / UMD / Google / USGS / NASA

Global Forest Change

Covers: 2000–2024, annual
Resolution: 30 m raster
How it is computed: Annual tree-cover loss and gain pixels summed within each diocesan boundary and expressed as a share of the year-2000 canopy.
What it cannot tell you: Loss includes harvest and fire, not only deforestation; plantation regrowth reads as gain.
Licence: CC BY 4.0

Open the source

Global Biodiversity Information Facility

GBIF species occurrence records

Covers: Records to 2025
Resolution: Aggregated to 1° cells
How it is computed: Distinct species recorded per cell, normalised against the global maximum to give a relative richness reading.
What it cannot tell you: Reflects observation effort as well as biodiversity — well-surveyed regions score higher than equally rich unsurveyed ones.
Licence: CC BY 4.0

Open the source

World Resources Institute

Aqueduct 4.0 baseline water stress

Covers: 2023 release, 1979–2019 hydrology
Resolution: Hydrological catchment
How it is computed: Ratio of water withdrawals to available renewable supply, area-weighted onto diocesan boundaries.
What it cannot tell you: Catchment scale hides local scarcity within a diocese; groundwater depletion is modelled, not measured.
Licence: CC BY 4.0

Open the source

WRI Aqueduct Floods with WorldPop population

Coastal & riverine flood exposure

Covers: 2020 baseline, 2050 projections
Resolution: ~1 km grid
How it is computed: Population within modelled 1-in-100-year inundation extents, summed to the diocese.
What it cannot tell you: Modelled estimate, ±30%. Local flood defences and drainage are not represented.
Licence: CC BY 4.0

Open the source

Copernicus Climate Change Service / ECMWF

ERA5 reanalysis

Covers: 1991–2020 baseline, latest year compared
Resolution: 0.25° (~28 km)
How it is computed: Composite of temperature anomaly, days above the local 95th percentile, and precipitation variability, scaled 0–1 against the global distribution.
What it cannot tell you: A composite index, not an observed quantity. The weighting is our editorial choice and is published on the Methods page.
Licence: Copernicus licence, free reuse with attribution

Open the source

Copernicus Climate Change Service / ECMWF

ERA5 extreme heat days

Covers: 1991–2020 baseline
Resolution: 0.25° (~28 km)
How it is computed: Count of days above the local 95th-percentile daily maximum temperature, averaged over the last five years.
What it cannot tell you: A local percentile, so a hot day in Manila and a hot day in Dublin are different temperatures.
Licence: Copernicus licence, free reuse with attribution

Open the source

UNDP / OPHI and the European Commission JRC

Global MPI and INFORM Risk Index

Covers: 2024 releases
Resolution: Subnational admin unit
How it is computed: Multidimensional poverty headcount combined with INFORM hazard and coping-capacity scores, area-weighted to the diocese.
What it cannot tell you: Survey years differ by country — some inputs are five or more years old.
Licence: CC BY 4.0

Open the source

Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre

Global Internal Displacement Database

Covers: 2008–2024
Resolution: Country, with event geocoding
How it is computed: Disaster-related internal displacements, counted per event and mapped to the nearest boundary.
What it cannot tell you: Counts movements, not people — one person displaced twice appears twice.
Licence: CC BY-NC 4.0

Open the source

UNCCD / Trends.Earth

SDG 15.3.1 land productivity dynamics

Covers: 2000–2019
Resolution: 300 m raster
How it is computed: Share of land area classed as degrading in productivity, trend-tested per pixel.
What it cannot tell you: Productivity trends can be confounded by land-use change and by irrigation.
Licence: CC BY 4.0

Open the source

ESA Climate Change Initiative and IPC Global Partners

ESA land cover with IPC food insecurity phases

Covers: 2022 land cover, 2024–25 IPC
Resolution: 300 m raster / IPC analysis area
How it is computed: Cropland fraction per diocese, read alongside the prevailing IPC acute food insecurity phase.
What it cannot tell you: IPC analyses cover only countries under assessment; elsewhere the food dimension is blank, not zero.
Licence: CC BY 4.0 / IPC terms

Open the source

Ember and IRENA

Global electricity generation mix

Covers: 2024
Resolution: National
How it is computed: Renewable share of electricity generation, attributed to every diocese in that country.
What it cannot tell you: National figures. A diocese beside a hydro scheme and one on a coal grid in the same country read identically.
Licence: CC BY 4.0

Open the source

European Commission Joint Research Centre

EDGAR gridded greenhouse gas emissions

Covers: 2024 release, 2023 data
Resolution: 0.1° (~11 km)
How it is computed: Gridded CO₂ emissions summed within the diocesan boundary and divided by resident population.
What it cannot tell you: Production-based accounting: emissions are assigned where they are released, not where the goods are consumed.
Licence: CC BY 4.0

Open the source

Laudato Si' Action Platform

LSAP enrolment registry

Covers: Pilot extract
Resolution: Institution, aggregated to diocese
How it is computed: Count of enrolled institutions per diocese, self-registered on the platform.
What it cannot tell you: Self-reported and incomplete by design — absence on this map means not yet enrolled, never inaction.
Licence: Platform data, shared for pilot review

Open the source

Laudato Si' Action Platform

LSAP educational institutions

Covers: Pilot extract
Resolution: Institution
How it is computed: Registered Catholic schools and universities, geocoded to their diocese.
What it cannot tell you: Registration is voluntary; coverage is far denser where a bishops' conference has promoted the platform.
Licence: Platform data, shared for pilot review

Open the source

Platform and indicator data

Figures about the Church’s own participation, and the headline indicator set shown alongside the seven goals.

Compiled from UNEP, UNDP, FAO, IEA, World Bank and the LSAP registry

Integral ecology indicator set

Covers: Most recent available year per indicator, 2022–2025
Resolution: Global and national
How it is computed: Headline figures selected for each of the seven goals, each traceable to a single published series.
What it cannot tell you: Pilot-phase demonstration values. Reference years differ between indicators, so they are not a single-year snapshot.
Licence: Mixed, per underlying series

Open the source

Laudato Si' Action Platform

LSAP registered projects by region

Covers: Pilot extract
Resolution: Ecclesiastical region
How it is computed: Registered projects counted per diocese and summed to the region.
What it cannot tell you: Regional totals track enrolment activity, not the total ecological work of the Church in that region.
Licence: Platform data, shared for pilot review

Open the source

This atlas, from ERA5 and UNCCD inputs

Composite climate stress regions

Covers: Pilot demonstration
Resolution: Coarse regional envelope
How it is computed: Broad regions shaded by a combined heat-anomaly and land-degradation reading, drawn as generalised envelopes for legibility.
What it cannot tell you: Deliberately coarse. These shapes communicate where stress concentrates; they are not an analytical boundary and should not be measured against.
Licence: CC BY 4.0

Open the source

Themes and the layers behind them

The atlas asks visitors what they are curious about in everyday words. This table shows exactly which datasets each of those words resolves to.

Theme	Layers	Goals served
Forests & biodiversity	Forest change · Wildlife & species records	Response to the Cry of the Earth · Ecological Spirituality
Water	Water stress · Flood exposure	Response to the Cry of the Earth · Community Resilience & Empowerment
Climate	Composite climate stress · Extreme heat days	Response to the Cry of the Earth · Adoption of Sustainable Lifestyles
People & vulnerability	Social vulnerability · Climate displacement	Response to the Cry of the Poor · Community Resilience & Empowerment
Food & land	Land degradation · Cropland & food security	Ecological Economics · Adoption of Sustainable Lifestyles
Energy	Renewable share · Emissions intensity	Ecological Economics · Adoption of Sustainable Lifestyles
Community	Participation density · Catholic schools & universities	Ecological Spirituality · Community Resilience & Empowerment

This inventory is meant
to be argued with.

Corrections, better sources and methodological criticism are welcome. Tell us what is missing, outdated or unclear and the team will review it.

Back to the Atlas of Laudato Si’ Suggest a source or correction