The FGGD Digital Atlas consists of more than 100 global maps that allows to analyse food insecurity and poverty in relation to environment. It is subdivided into 6 modules as follows: Module 1 Boundaries and Topography Module 2 Population Module 3 Socio-Economic and Nutrition Indicators Module 4 Environmental Conditions Module 5 Land Use Patterns and Land Cover Module 6 Land Productivity Potential

The updating of world soil resources, using the Soil and Terrain (SOTER) digital database methodology, is part of a global SOTER programme and intended to replace the FAO/Unesco 1:5 million scale Soil Map of the World (1971-1981). The original map sheets were published in 1970-1980 and were compiled on basis of information and data available at that time. It is understandable that a substantial part does not reflect the present state of knowledge of the soils in the regions. The national institutes, responsible for the natural resources inventories, have been collecting a wealth of new information on the distribution and occurrence of soils in their region, which has resulted in updating their national soil maps mostly at scale 1:1 million, often applying the Revised Legend (FAO, UNEP, ISRIC, 1988) for the description of the mapping units. The International Union of Soil Science (IUSS) adopted an important change in the classification used for the map by introducing lower levels of subunits of the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (IUSS, FAO, ISRIC, 1998). This, together with the new soil data available at national level, justified such an update of the soil resources for the regional updates (South America and the Caribbean, Northeastern Africa, Southern Africa, East and Central Europe, North and Central Eurasia and Central Africa have been completed to date.

The Multipurpose Africover Database for the Environmental Resources is a digital georeferenced database on land cover and a geographic referential for the whole of Africa including: - geodetical homogeneous referential - toponomy - roads - hydrography It is produced at a 1:200,000 scale (1:100,000 for small countries and specific areas). Reinforcing national and sub-regional capacities for the establishment update and use of the geographic referential and land cover maps and spatial data bases is the core strategy of the Africover project: this has been the methodology adopted to ensure an operational approach and the sustainability of the initiative.