Introduction

Geographical scale, in terms of spatial extent, provide a basis for other branches of science. This dataset contains newly proposed geographical and geological GIS boundaries for the Pan-Tibetan Highlands (new proposed name for the High Mountain Asia), based on geological and geomorphological features. This region comprises the Tibetan Plateau and three adjacent mountain regions: the Himalaya, Hengduan Mountains and Mountains of Central Asia, and boundaries are also given for each subregion individually. The dataset will benefit quantitative spatial analysis by providing a well-defined geographical scale for other branches of research, aiding cross-disciplinary comparisons and synthesis, as well as reproducibility of research results.

The dataset comprises three subsets, and we provide three data formats (.shp, .geojson and .kmz) for each of them. Shapefile format (.shp) was generated in ArcGIS Pro, and the other two were converted from shapefile, the conversion steps refer to 'Data processing' section below. The following is a description of the three subsets:

(1) The GIS boundaries we newly defined of the Pan-Tibetan Highlands and its four constituent sub-regions, i.e. the Tibetan Plateau, Himalaya, Hengduan Mountains and the Mountains of Central Asia. All files are placed in the "Pan-Tibetan Highlands (Liu et al._2022)" folder.

(2) We also provide GIS boundaries that were applied by other studies (cited in Fig. 3 of our work) in the folder "Tibetan Plateau and adjacent mountains (Others’ definitions)". If these data is used, please cite the relevent paper accrodingly. In addition, it is worthy to note that the GIS boundaries of Hengduan Mountains (Li et al. 1987a) and Mountains of Central Asia (Foggin et al. 2021) were newly generated in our study using Georeferencing toolbox in ArcGIS Pro.

(3) Geological assemblages and characters of the Pan-Tibetan Highlands, including Cratons and micro-continental blocks (Fig. S1), plus sutures, faults and thrusts (Fig. 4), are placed in the "Pan-Tibetan Highlands (geological files)" folder.

Note: High Mountain Asia: The name ‘High Mountain Asia’ is the only direct synonym of Pan-Tibetan Highlands, but this term is both grammatically awkward and somewhat misleading, and hence the term ‘Pan-Tibetan Highlands’ is here proposed to replace it. Third Pole: The first use of the term ‘Third Pole’ was in reference to the Himalaya by Kurz & Montandon (1933), but the usage was subsequently broadened to the Tibetan Plateau or the whole of the Pan-Tibetan Highlands. The mainstream scientific literature refer the ‘Third Pole’ to the region encompassing the Tibetan Plateau, Himalaya, Hengduan Mountains, Karakoram, Hindu Kush and Pamir. This definition was surpported by geological strcture (Main Pamir Thrust) in the western part, and generally overlaps with the ‘Tibetan Plateau’ sensu lato defined by some previous studies, but is more specific.

More discussion and reference about names please refer to the paper. The figures (Figs. 3, 4, S1) mentioned above were attached in the end of this document.

Data processing

We provide three data formats. Conversion of shapefile data to kmz format was done in ArcGIS Pro. We used the Layer to KML tool in Conversion Toolbox to convert the shapefile to kmz format. Conversion of shapefile data to geojson format was done in R. We read the data using the shapefile function of the raster package, and wrote it as a geojson file using the geojson_write function in the geojsonio package.

Version

Version 2022.1.

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB31010000), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41971071), the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences, CAS (ZDBS-LY-7001). We are grateful to our coauthors insightful discussion and comments. We also want to thank professors Jed Kaplan, Yin An, Dai Erfu, Zhang Guoqing, Peter Cawood, Tobias Bolch and Marc Foggin for suggestions and providing GIS files.

Citation

Liu, J., Milne, R. I., Zhu, G. F., Spicer, R. A., Wambulwa, M. C., Wu, Z. Y., Li, D. Z. (2022). Name and scale matters: Clarifying the geography of Tibetan Plateau and adjacent mountain regions. Global and Planetary Change, In revision

Jie Liu & Guangfu Zhu. (2022). Geographical and geological GIS boundaries of the Tibetan Plateau and adjacent mountain regions (Version 2022.1). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6432940

Contacts

Dr. Jie LIU: E-mail: liujie@mail.kib.ac.cn;

Mr. Guangfu ZHU: zhuguangfu@mail.kib.ac.cn

Institution: Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Address: 132# Lanhei Road, Heilongtan, Kunming 650201, Yunnan, China

Copyright

This dataset is available under the Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0).

The Community Resilience Estimates (CRE) program provides an easily understood metric for how socially vulnerable every neighborhood in the United States is to the impacts of disasters.This ready-to-use layer can be used within ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online, its configurable apps, dashboards, Story Maps, custom apps, and mobile apps. Data can also be exported for offline workflows. Please cite the Census, CRE, and ACS when using this data.Overview:Community resilience is the capacity of individuals and households within a community to prepare, absorb, respond, and recover from a disaster. Local planners, policy makers, public health officials, emergency managers, and community stakeholders need a variety of estimates to help assess the potential resiliency and vulnerabilities of communities and their constituent populations to help prepare and plan mitigation, recovery, and response strategies. Community Resilience Estimates (CRE) focuses on developing a tool to identify socio-economic vulnerabilities within populations. The 2022 Community Resilience Estimates (CRE) are produced using information on individuals and households from the 2022 American Community Survey (ACS) and the Census Bureau’s Population Estimates Program (PEP). The CRE uses small area modeling techniques that can be used for a broad range of disaster related events (hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, economic shocks, etc.) to identify population concentrations likely to be relatively more impacted by and have greater difficulties overcoming disasters. The end result is a data product which measures vulnerability more accurately and timely. Data:The ACS is a nationally representative survey with data on the characteristics of the U.S. population. The sample is selected from all counties and county-equivalents and has a sample size of about 3.5 million housing units each year. It is the premier source for timely and detailed population and housing information about our nation and its communities. We also use auxiliary data from the PEP, the Census Bureau’s program that produces and publishes estimates of the population living at a given time within a geographic entity in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. We use population data from the PEP by age group, race and ethnicity, and sex. Since the PEP does not go down to the census tract level, the CRE uses the Public Law 94-171 summary files (PL94) and Demographic Housing Characteristics File (DHC) tables from the 2020 Decennial Census to help produce the population base estimates. Once the weighted estimates are tabulated, small area modeling techniques are used to create the estimates for the CRE. Components of Social Vulnerability (SV): Resilience to a disaster is partly determined by the components of social vulnerability exhibited within a community’s population. To measure these components and construct the community resilience estimates, we designed population estimates based on individual- and household-level components of social vulnerability. These components are binary indicators or variables that add up to a maximum of 10 possible components using data from the ACS. The specific ACS-defined measures we use are as follows: Components of Social Vulnerability (SV) for Households (HH) and Individuals (I):SV 1: Income-to-Poverty Ratio (IPR) < 130 percent (HH). SV 2: Single or zero caregiver household - only one or no individuals living in the household who are 18-64 (HH). SV 3: Unit-level crowding with >= 0.75 persons per room (HH). SV 4: Communication barrier defined as either: Limited English-speaking households1 (HH) orNo one in the household over the age of 16 with a high school diploma (HH). SV 5: No one in the household is employed full-time, year-round. The flag is not applied if all residents of the household are aged 65 years or older (HH). SV 6: Disability posing constraint to significant life activity. Persons who report having any one of the six disability types (I): hearing difficulty, vision difficulty, cognitive difficulty, ambulatory difficulty, self-care difficulty, and independent living difficulty. SV 7: No health insurance coverage (I). SV 8: Being aged 65 years or older (I). SV 9: No vehicle access (HH). SV 10: Households without broadband internet access (HH). Each individual is assigned a 0 or 1 for each of the components based upon their individual or household attributes listed above. It is important to note that SV 4 is not double flagged. An individual will be assigned a 1, if either of the characteristics is true for their household. For example, if a household is linguistically isolated and no one over the age of 16 has attained a high school diploma or more education, the household members are only flagged once. The result is an index that produces aggregate-level (tract, county, and state) small area estimates: the CRE. The CRE provide an estimate for the number of people with a specific number of social vulnerabilities. In its current data file layout form, the estimates are categorized into three groups: zero , one-two, or three plus social vulnerability components. Differences with CRE 2021:The number of census tracts have increased from 84,414 in CRE 2021 to 84,415 in CRE 2022. This is due to the boundary changes in Connecticut implemented in 2022 census data products. To accommodate the boundary change, Connecticut also now has nine planning regions instead of eight counties in CRE 2022.To avoid confusion, the modeled rates are now set to equal zero in CRE 2022 for geographic areas with zero population in universe. To improve the population base estimates, CRE 2022 uses more detailed decennial estimates from the 2020 DHC in addition to PL94, whereas CRE 2021 just used PL94 due to availability at the time. See “2022 Community Resilience Estimates: Detailed Technical Documentation” for more information. Data Processing Notes:Boundaries come from the Cartographic Boundaries via US Census TIGER geodatabases. Boundaries are updated at the same time as the data updates, and the boundary vintage appropriately matches the data vintage as specified by the Census. These are Census boundaries with water and/or coastlines clipped for cartographic purposes. For state and county boundaries, the water and coastlines are derived from the coastlines of the 500k TIGER Cartographic Boundary Shapefiles. The original AWATER and ALAND fields are still available as attributes within the data table (units are square meters). This dataset does not contain values for Puerto Rico or Island Areas at any level of geography.Further Information:Community Resilience Estimates Program Website https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/community-resilience-estimates.htmlCommunity Resilience Estimates Technical Documentation https://census.gov/programs-surveys/community-resilience-estimates/technical-documentation.htmlFor Data Questionssehsd.cre@census.gov

Table from the American Community Survey (ACS) B08303 travel time to work. These are multiple, nonoverlapping vintages of the 5-year ACS estimates of population and housing attributes starting in 2010 shown by the corresponding census tract vintage. Also includes the most recent release annually.

Table from the American Community Survey (ACS) B17004 of poverty status in the past 12 months of individuals by sex by work experience. These are multiple, nonoverlapping vintages of the 5-year ACS estimates of population and housing attributes starting in 2010 shown by the corresponding census tract vintage. Also includes the most recent release annually.

The Climate Resilience Information System (CRIS) provides data and tools for developers of climate services. This image service provides access to downscaled climate projections for 16 threshold values of precipitation for the contiguous United States for 2 SSP climate scenarios from 1950-2100. These services are intended to support analysis of climate exposure for custom geographies and time horizons. Sixteen downscaled global circulation models (GCMs) were chosen to be included in a weighted ensemble, optimized for the contiguous United States. More details on the models included in the ensemble and the weighting methodologies can be found in Understanding CRIS Data.Time RangesPixel values for each variable were calculated for each year from 2005 to 2100. Additionally, a modeled history runs from 1950 - 2005. The modeled history and future projections have been merged into a single time series. These annual increments support deriving a temporal average, such as a decadal or thirty-year period centered on a specific year. These time steps should not be used to make predictions about conditions for a specific year, especially at a pixel-level. Climate ScenariosClimate models use estimates of future greenhouse gas concentrations and human activities to predict overall change. These different scenarios are called the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs). Two different SSPs are presented here: 2-4.5 and 5-8.5. The 2- or 5- represents the socioeconomic growth model. The 4.5 or 8.5 number indicates the amount of radiative forcing (watts per meter square) associated with the greenhouse gas concentration scenario in the year 2100 (higher forcing = greater warming). It is unclear which scenario will be the most likely, but SSP2-4.5 aligns closest with the international targets of the COP-26 agreement for no greater than 2oC average global warming. SSP3-7.0 may be the most likely scenario based on current emission trends. SSP5-8.5 acts as a cautionary tale, depicting a worst-case scenario if reductions in greenhouse gasses are not undertaken. Variable DefinitionsSee the variable list and definitions here. Additional ServicesThree versions of the gridded climate projections are available from CRIS:LOCA2 Ensemble: a statistically downscaled 6-km resolution model. LOCA2 has SSP2-4.5, 3-7.0 and 5-8.5STAR-ESDM Ensemble: a statistically downscaled 4-km resolution model. STAR-ESDM has SSP2-4.5 and 5-8.5NCA5 Blended Ensemble: a merging of LOCA2 and STAR-ESDM ensembles at a 6-km resolution, as was done for the 5th National Climate Assessment (2023). NCA Blended Ensemble has SSP2-4.5 and 5-8.5Using the Imagery LayerThe ArcGIS Tiled Imagery Service has a multidimensional structure -- a data cube with variable, SSP, and time dimensions. Methods for accessing the different dimensions will depend on the software/client being used. For more details, please see the CRIS Developer’s Hub along with this instructional StoryMap. To run analysis, first use the multidimensional tools Aggregate or Subset in ArcGIS Pro to copy the necessary data locally.Data ExportData export is enabled on the services if using an ArcGIS client. NetCDF or Zarr files are also available from the NOAA Open Data Distribution system on Amazon Web Services.