These datasets represent a Human Industrial Footprint (HIF) index map and an Ecological Intactness Index (EII) map for Australia circa 2020-2024. The datasets are distributed in raster format (.tif) and have a spatial resolution of 100 m, mapped on an Australian Albers Equal Area projection (EPSG:3577). The HIF was created by incorporating 16 nationally relevant pressure layers, also part of the dataset. The pressures used to compute the HIF were 1) intensive land uses, 2) buildings, 3) mining and quarrying, 4) human population density, 5) croplands, 6) pasturelands, 7) forestry plantations, 8) reservoirs and large dams, 9) farm dams, 10) roads, 11) railways, 12) energy transmission lines, 13) oil pipelines, 14) gas pipelines, 15) hiking trails, and 16)  navigable waterways. Each pressure layer was assigned a relative score between 0 and 10 to make them comparable. The scored (scaled) pressure layers were then summed to obtain the final HIF map.The HIF was used to derive the Ecological Intactness Index (EII). The EII is calculated using the HIF, with the intactness index value for each cell parameterised to: a) be proportional to habitat area when there is no habitat fragmentation; b) decline mono-tonically as fragmentation increases, and be sensitive to both the number of nearby patches and the separation between patches, and (c) to be proportional to habitat quality for a given total area of habitat and degree of fragmentation.In the pressure layer folder, native and modified pasturelands are merged in the "pastures" pressure layer and paved and unpaved roads are in the "roads" layer.The code to create these maps is also available through this repository.  The code is an end‑to‑end GRASS GIS pipeline to rebuild the Human Industrial Footprint Index for continental Australia on a 100 m grid in Albers Australia Equal Area (EPSG:3577). It generates 16 pressure layers, applies hierarchical priority (Urban > Mining > Crops >Pasture), scales each 0–10, and exports individual layers plus the summed index as Cloud‑Optimised GeoTIFFs (COGs).AcknowledgementsThis research was funded by The Wilderness Society.ContactFurther queries regarding these datasets can be directed to Ruben Venegas ([email protected]) and James Watson ([email protected]).

These datasets represent a Human Industrial Footprint (HIF) index map and an Ecological Intactness Index (EII) map for Australia circa 2020-2024. The datasets are distributed in raster format (.tif) and have a spatial resolution of 100 m, mapped on an Australian Albers Equal Area projection (EPSG:3577). The HIF was created by incorporating 16 nationally relevant pressure layers, also part of the dataset. The pressures used to compute the HIF were 1) intensive land uses, 2) buildings, 3) mining and quarrying, 4) human population density, 5) croplands, 6) pasturelands, 7) forestry plantations, 8) reservoirs and large dams, 9) farm dams, 10) roads, 11) railways, 12) energy transmission lines, 13) oil pipelines, 14) gas pipelines, 15) hiking trails, and 16)  navigable waterways. Each pressure layer was assigned a relative score between 0 and 10 to make them comparable. The scored (scaled) pressure layers were then summed to obtain the final HIF map.The HIF was used to derive the Ecological Intactness Index (EII). The EII is calculated using the HIF, with the intactness index value for each cell parameterised to: a) be proportional to habitat area when there is no habitat fragmentation; b) decline mono-tonically as fragmentation increases, and be sensitive to both the number of nearby patches and the separation between patches, and (c) to be proportional to habitat quality for a given total area of habitat and degree of fragmentation.In the pressure layer folder, native and modified pasturelands are merged in the "pastures" pressure layer and paved and unpaved roads are in the "roads" layer.The code to create these maps is also available through this repository.  The code is an end‑to‑end GRASS GIS pipeline to rebuild the Human Industrial Footprint Index for continental Australia on a 100 m grid in Albers Australia Equal Area (EPSG:3577). It generates 16 pressure layers, applies hierarchical priority (Urban > Mining > Crops >Pasture), scales each 0–10, and exports individual layers plus the summed index as Cloud‑Optimised GeoTIFFs (COGs).AcknowledgementsThis research was funded by The Wilderness Society.ContactFurther queries regarding these datasets can be directed to Ruben Venegas ([email protected]) and James Watson ([email protected]).

These datasets represent a Human Industrial Footprint (HIF) index map and an Ecological Intactness Index (EII) map for Australia circa 2020-2024. The datasets are distributed in raster format (.tif) and have a spatial resolution of 100 m, mapped on an Australian Albers Equal Area projection (EPSG:3577). The HIF was created by incorporating 16 nationally relevant pressure layers, also part of the dataset. The pressures used to compute the HIF were 1) intensive land uses, 2) buildings, 3) mining and quarrying, 4) human population density, 5) croplands, 6) pasturelands, 7) forestry plantations, 8) reservoirs and large dams, 9) farm dams, 10) roads, 11) railways, 12) energy transmission lines, 13) oil pipelines, 14) gas pipelines, 15) hiking trails, and 16)  navigable waterways. Each pressure layer was assigned a relative score between 0 and 10 to make them comparable. The scored (scaled) pressure layers were then summed to obtain the final HIF map.The HIF was used to derive the Ecological Intactness Index (EII). The EII is calculated using the HIF, with the intactness index value for each cell parameterised to: a) be proportional to habitat area when there is no habitat fragmentation; b) decline mono-tonically as fragmentation increases, and be sensitive to both the number of nearby patches and the separation between patches, and (c) to be proportional to habitat quality for a given total area of habitat and degree of fragmentation.In the pressure layer folder, native and modified pasturelands are merged in the "pastures" pressure layer and paved and unpaved roads are in the "roads" layer.AcknowledgementsThis research was funded by The Wilderness Society.ContactFurther queries regarding these datasets can be directed to Ruben Venegas ([email protected]) and James Watson ([email protected]).

These datasets represent a Human Industrial Footprint (HIF) index map and an Ecological Intactness Index (EII) map for Australia circa 2020-2024. The datasets are distributed in raster format (.tif) and have a spatial resolution of 100 m, mapped on an Australian Albers Equal Area projection (EPSG:3577). The HIF was created by incorporating 16 nationally relevant pressure layers, also part of the dataset. The pressures used to compute the HIF were 1) intensive land uses, 2) buildings, 3) mining and quarrying, 4) human population density, 5) croplands, 6) pasturelands, 7) forestry plantations, 8) reservoirs and large dams, 9) farm dams, 10) roads, 11) railways, 12) energy transmission lines, 13) oil pipelines, 14) gas pipelines, 15) hiking trails, and 16)  navigable waterways. Each pressure layer was assigned a relative score between 0 and 10 to make them comparable. The scored (scaled) pressure layers were then summed to obtain the final HIF map.The HIF was used to derive the Ecological Intactness Index (EII). The EII is calculated using the HIF, with the intactness index value for each cell parameterised to: a) be proportional to habitat area when there is no habitat fragmentation; b) decline mono-tonically as fragmentation increases, and be sensitive to both the number of nearby patches and the separation between patches, and (c) to be proportional to habitat quality for a given total area of habitat and degree of fragmentation.In the pressure layer folder, native and modified pasturelands are merged in the "pastures" pressure layer and paved and unpaved roads are in the "roads" layer.AcknowledgementsThis research was funded by The Wilderness Society.ContactFurther queries regarding these datasets can be directed to Ruben Venegas ([email protected]) and James Watson ([email protected]).

Abstract: Efforts are underway in Canada to set aside terrestrial lands for conservation, thereby protecting them from anthropogenic pressures. Here we produce the first Canadian human footprint map by combining twelve different anthropogenic pressures and identify intact and modified lands and ecosystems across the country. Our results showed strong spatial variation in pressures across the country, with just 18% of Canada experiencing measurable human pressure. However, some ecosystems are experiencing very high pressure, such as the Great Lakes Plains and Prairies national ecological areas which have over 75% and 56% of their areas, respectively, with a high human footprint. In contrast, the Arctic and Northern Mountains have less than 0.02% and 0.2% of their extent under high human footprint. A validation of the final map, using random statistical sampling, resulted in a Cohen Kappa statistic of 0.91, signifying an ‘almost perfect’ agreement between the human footprint and the validation data set. By increasing the number and accuracy of mapped pressures, our map demonstrates much more widespread pressures in Canada than were indicated by previous global mapping efforts, demonstrating the value in specific national data applications. Ecological areas with immense anthropogenic pressure, highlight challenges that may arise when planning for ecologically representative protected areas.

Leading up to the 2020 Convention on Biological Diversity there is momentum around setting bold conservation targets. Yet it remains unclear how much of Earth’s land area remains without significant human influence and where this land is located. We compare four recent global maps of human influences across Earth’s land, Anthromes, Global Human Modification, Human Footprint, and Low Impact Areas, to answer these questions. Despite using various methodologies and data, these different spatial assessments independently estimate similar percentages of the Earth’s terrestrial surface as having very low (20-34%) and low (48-56%) human influence. Three out of four spatial assessments agree on 46% of the non-permanent ice- or snow-covered land as having low human influence. However, much of the very low and low influence portions of the planet are comprised of cold (e.g., boreal forests, montane grasslands and tundra) or arid (e.g., deserts) landscapes. Only four biomes (boreal forests, deserts, temperate coniferous forests and tundra) have a majority of datasets agreeing that at least half of their area has very low human influence. More concerning, <1% of temperate grasslands, tropical coniferous forests and tropical dry forests have very low human influence across most datasets, and tropical grasslands, mangroves and montane grasslands also have <1% land identified as very low influence across all datasets. These findings suggest that about half of Earth’s terrestrial surface has relatively low human influence and offers opportunities for proactive conservation actions to retain the last intact ecosystems on the planet. However, though the relative abundance of ecosystem areas with low human influence varies widely by biome, conserving these last intact areas should be a high priority before they are completely lost.

This dataset classifies the global terrestrial land surface into one of four categories: likely Natural, potential Natural, potential Modified, and likely Modified. The dataset use freely available data layers in combination to develop a new global layer that identifies natural and modified habitat. It is aligned with the definitions of natural and modified habitat from the highly influential Performance Standard 6 (PS6) of the International Finance Corporation (IFC). However, we propose this layer as an output that can be used beyond the IFC and could be integrated into the investment decision making of global and regional banks, or the decision making of international corporations.

Conserving threatened species requires identifying where across their range they are being impacted by threats, yet this remains unresolved across most of Earth. Here we present a global analysis of cumulative human impacts on threatened species by using a spatial framework that jointly considers the co-occurrence of eight threatening processes and the distribution of 5,457 terrestrial vertebrates. We show that impacts to species are widespread, occurring across 84% of Earth's surface, and identify hotspots of impacted species richness, and coolspots of unimpacted species richness. Almost one quarter of assessed species are impacted across > 90% of their distribution, and ~7% are impacted across their entire range. These results foreshadow localized extirpations, and potential extinctions, without conservation action. The spatial framework developed here offers a tool for defining strategies to directly mitigate the threats driving species declines, providing essential information for future national and global conservation agendas.