Legal Atlas

Legal Atlas combines the power of cloud-based data management, GIS-applications, and scientific and legal information to study/map the use of law as a management tool for the world’s environment, agricultural, energy, and natural resources.

Legal Atlas aims to contribute to our ability to better manage resources and foster economic development while at the same time improving environmental sustainability and reducing social conflict. The initiative focuses on the operational aspects of public policy: the laws and regulations that bring them to life. Building on the efforts of numerous organizations and in partnership with leading universities and expert institutions, Legal Atlas is focused on this missing piece of the puzzle - the creation of a one-stop window that compiles and monitors legal frameworks, conducts comparative analyses to establish legal best practices, and assesses national legal frameworks and their ability to support (or hinder) best practices in managing resources locally and on a global scale.

Whether the subject is energy, urban planning, protected area management, vehicle emissions standards, or other, Legal Atlas is developing a knowledge platform that will provide analytical, computational, and visual tools to a growing, worldwide community of experts, policy makers and legal drafters, allowing them to directly participate in a virtual center that provides lay descriptions for all legal frameworks, legal best practices articles, specialized maps illustrating the physical footprint of laws.