This section of the CD-ROM contains the basic land characteristics. This dataset is aimed at providing specialists and scientists in research institutes and international agencies with the capability to perform scientific analysis with a Geographic Information System.

These data describe land characteristics that might be applied in various ways, e.g, as individual items (temperature, elevation, vegetation community, etc.), in combination (forest-temperature associations, soil spectra for land use types, etc.) and, as aggregations based on a conceptual framework of a different level of complexity (ecosystem establishment, human-induced land cover transformation, biochemical cycle analysis, etc.). The choice will be guided by various determinants, including type of research task, familiarity with the data, fluency in data processing, etc. Ultimately, users may apply these data in any fashion they choose.

Major Topics
Climate
Hydrology
Permafrost
Relief
Lithology
Vegetation
Soils
Biodiversity
Wetlands
Land Cover