Datasets, Data Products, & Sample Indicators

Datasets

Datasets refer to all datasets used in the analytics prepared for a project. The Datasets table includes a description of the data and their update frequency, as well as access links and contact information for questions about use and access. Users should not require any datasets not included in this table to complete the analytical work for the Data Good.

The following is the list of all Datasets used in this Data Good:

Note

Project Sharepoint links are only accessible to the project team. For permissions to access these data, please write to the contact provided. The Development Data Hub is the World Bank’s central data catalogue and includes meta-data and license information.Where feasible, all datasets that can be obtained through the Development Data Hub have been placed in a special collection: Syria Economic Monitor Data Collection.

ID	Name	License	Description	Update Frequency	Access	Contact
1	Syria Admin Boundaries	Open	Admin boundaries up to level 4	No Planned Update (Last updated in January 2021)	Open Access Point (UNOCHA); Development Data Hub	Sahiti Sarva, Data Lab
2	Population Movement	Proprietary	Timestamped geographical points generated by GPS-enabled devices, provided by Outlogic	Monthly (Daily possible)	Development Data Partnership; Development Data Hub	Gabriel Stefanini Vicente, Data Lab
3	ACLED Conflict Data	Open	Timestamped, geolocated points where conflict took place collected based on news and crowdsourced data	Daily	Project SharePoint; Development Data Hub	Andres Chamorro, GOST
4	Nighttime Lights	Open	Nighttime lights from VIIRS/Black Marble	Monthly (daily possible)	Project SharePoint; Development Data Hub	Benjamin Stewart, GOST; Robert Marty, DIME
5	Vehicle Counts Derived from Satellite Imagery	Proprietary	Counts of cars and trucks from high resolution satellite imagery via Orbital Insight	On ad hoc basis (high-res imagery not taken at regular intervals)	Project SharePoint; Development Data Hub	Robert Marty, DIME
6	Radar Data	Open	ESA Synthetic Aperture Radar used to detect metallic reflectance (e.g., from vehicles).	Every 12 days	Open Access Point (ESA);	Robert Marty, DIME
7	Traffic Trends Derived from Remote Sensing	Proprietary	Analysis of ESA Radar data to detect changes in traffic patterns via SpaceKnow	Monthly	Project SharePoint; Development Data Hub	Robert Marty
8	AIS Data	Proprietary	Ship location data aggregated by Spire made available through a UN collaboration. (Available from 1 Dec 2018 - 31 Aug 2022)	Updated Daily	Project SharePoint	Andres Chamorro, GOST
9	Population Data	Open and Proprietary	Population with demographic information from Meta (2019) and population from WorldPop (2020)	No Planned Update (Data available for 2019 and 2020)	Project SharePoint; Development Data Hub	Sahiti Sarva, Data Lab
10	Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)	Open	Normalized Difference Vegetation Index datasets sourced from MODIS, used to measure change in agricultural production	Monthly	European Commission, Anomaly Hotspots of Agricultural Production; Development Data Hub	Andres Chamorro, GOST
11	Border Crossing Map	Authorized Access	Border crossing analysis by UN Humanitarian Needs Assessment Programme	No Planned Update (Last updated August 2022)	Project SharePoint
12	Forest Cover Change	Open	Global Forest Watch prepares annual global estimates of forest cover change, based on Landsat data.	Annually	Global Forest Watch	Holly Krambeck
13	USGS Earthquake Location	Open	USGS provides a shakemap of earthquake intensity felt in different parts of the country during the February 2023 earthquake.	No planned frequency	Project SharePoint	Sahiti Sarva

Data Products Summary

Data Products are produced using the Datasets and can be further used to generate indicators and insights. All Data Products include documentation, references to original data sources (and/or information on how to access them), and a description of their limitations.

Following is a summary of Data Products used in this Data Good:

ID	Name	Description	Limitations	Foundational Datasets Used (ID#)
A	Shipping Import and Export Volumes	Daily/monthly aggregated estimated import export trade volume by port	Results only reflect reported AIS data; Draft data underlying volume estimates not consistently reported.	1,8
B	Observed Vehicle Stop Locations by Border Crossing Type (Formal and Informal) using GPS data	Monthly aggregated analysis of trip patterns through formal and informal checkpoints, over time.	Convenience sample; Sample size is very limited	1,2,11
C	Trends in Traffic Volumes at Formal and Informal Border Crossings	Monthly aggregated statistics of cross-border flows at select locations	Data purchase limited to select checkpoints to determine insight value; Satellite imagery-derived counts reflect sporadic time periods; Radar-derived traffic trends do not include counts	5,6,7,11
D	Changes in Observed Nighttime Lights	Yearly and monthly aggregated remote sensing data used to derive changes in observed nighttime lights	Results reflect data from NASA’s nighttime lights data	4
E	Change in Agricultural Production	Monthly change in Normalized Difference in Vegetation Index as a proxy to measure change in agricultural production	The statistics are based on global datasets to flag warnings. It has not been fine-tuned to describe local agricultural dynamics.	10
F	Changes in Forest Cover	Net change in forest cover from 2000 through 2021 with Summary Statistics	Due to technology and method changes, data pre- and post 2015 not always directly comparable.	12

Sample Indicators

Indicators can be derived from a combination of Datasets and Data Products. By combining Datasets and Data Products, teams can, on-demand, develop a large array of indicators to meet their project needs. Indicators can presented side-by-side in an Excel workbook – a format that is generally accessible to the widest audiences. Because all indicators are based on the same underlying data, they are comparable with each other, across geographies and across time.

For this project, sample indicators have been derived and aggregated at the governorate level and by year, to show changing trends in each governorate over time. Here is a link to the Indicators Excel workbook (accessible to team members via SharePoint): Excel workbook, and following is a summary of sample indicators.

ID	Name	Indicator (units)	Potential Update Frequency	Datasets and Data Products Used (ID#)
i	Population	Number of people	Annual	1,9
ii	Agriculture Indicators	Sum of Z-Scores	Annually	1,E
iii	Nighttime Lights	Sum of nighttime light pixels	Monthly	1,D
iv	Port Activity Indicator	Export volume (Tonnes)	Annually	1,A
v	Port Activity Indicator	Import volume (Tonnes)	Annually	1,A
vi	Fatalities from Violent Conflict	Number of people	Monthly	1,3
vii	Number of Violent Attacks	Number of events	Monthly	1,3
viii	Number of Riots and Protests	Number of events	Monthly	1,3
ix	Observed Formal Border-Crossing Corridor Locations	Number of observed stops	Annually	1,B
x	Observed Formal Border-Crossing Corridor Locations	Number of observed stops	Annually	1,B