- Description: This sphere encompasses the human-created systems and organizational structures that shape environments and human activities. It includes infrastructure, services, socioeconomic patterns, governance, the flow of information, the quantification of human resource utilization, and human-centric risk.
- Subclasses (Complexes):
socio_technical_infrastructure: Physical and organizational networks enabling urban and rural functions (e.g., transportation networks, utility grids, built environment as infrastructure, water/wastewater/stormwater infrastructure, waste management facilities).socio_technical_services: Organized activities and institutions providing essential functions (e.g., healthcare, education, public safety, commercial services, water supply/wastewater treatment services, energy generation/distribution).socio_technical_socioeconomic: Data on human populations, their activities, and organization (e.g., demographics, economy, land ownership, consumption patterns, general human population distribution, workforce data, GDP, income levels).socio_technical_governance: Administrative structures, regulations, and policy (e.g., administrative boundaries (municipalities, regions, nations), cadastral parcels, zoning maps, planning maps, national park boundaries, protected area designations, political divisions, environmental regulations, resource management permits, fishing quotas).socio_technical_ict: Information and communication technologies and data flows (e.g., sensor networks, digital platforms, communication infrastructure, smart city data, geospatial data infrastructure (GDI) management data).socio_technical_contaminants: Data related to human-generated sources or pathways of contamination, or human exposure to contaminants and human health impacts (e.g., industrial emission points, hazardous waste sites, pollution regulations, spatial distribution of human disease cases/outbreaks, human exposure assessment data).socio_technical_hazard_vulnerability_risk: Data combining natural or anthropogenic hazards with human vulnerability and exposure, leading to comprehensive risk assessments and management strategies. This includes spatial data on population vulnerability, critical infrastructure exposure, and multi-hazard risk mapping. Note: This is the risk to humans, not the natural hazard itself.socio_technical_resource_utilization: Data on the direct physical quantification of human resource extraction, harvesting, consumption, and production from natural systems. This includes measured volumes of abstracted water, harvested biomass (e.g., fish catches, timber yields), mineral extraction quantities, and energy production from natural sources.