SDG

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of 17 global goals established by the United Nations in 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. These goals aim to address a wide range of global challenges, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace, and justice. The SDGs are designed to be […]

SDG IMPACT

A direct, positive contribution to a Sustainable Development Goal generated by a Project.

SDG-INTERACTION SCORE

A seven-point scale (Nilsson et al., 2016) used to rate interactions between mitigation options and the SDGs. Scores range from +3 (indivisible) to −3 (cancelling), with a zero score indicating ‘consistent’ but with neither a positive or negative interaction. The scale, as applied in this report, also includes direction (whether the interaction is uni- or […]

SEA ICE

Solid water that forms when ocean or sea water freezes.

SEA LEVEL

Long-term average position of the sea surface. Sea level varies from place to place and with the time period for which the average is calculated. For the conterminous United States, sea level is most commonly referenced to the National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929.

SEA LEVEL CHANGE (SEA LEVEL RISE/SEA LEVEL FALL)

Sea level can change, both globally and locally (relative sea level change) due to (1) a change in ocean volume as a result of a change in the mass of water in the ocean, (2) changes in ocean volume as a result of changes in ocean water density, (3) changes in the shape of the […]

SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE (SST)

The sea surface temperature is the subsurface bulk temperature in the top few meters of the ocean, measured by ships, buoys, and drifters. From ships, measurements of water samples in buckets were mostly switched in the 1940s to samples from engine intake water. Satellite measurements of skin temperature (uppermost layer; a fraction of a millimeter […]

SEAL

An impermeable material placed in the annular space between the outermost water well casing and the drill hole to prevent inflow and movement of surface water or shallow ground water.

SECOND GROWTH

Those forests reestablished following the removal of virgin (i.e., previously un-harvested) or old-growth stands.