Historical Land-Cover Change and Land-Use Conversions Global Dataset

Description

A set of three estimates of land-cover types and annual transformations of land use are provided on a global 0.5 x0.5 degree lat/lon grid at annual time steps. The longest of the three estimates spans 1770-2010. The dataset presented here takes into account land-cover change due to four major land-use/management activities: (1) cropland expansion and abandonment, (2) pastureland expansion and abandonment, (3) urbanization, and (4) secondary forest regrowth due to wood harvest. Due to uncertainties associated with estimating historical agricultural (crops and pastures) land use, the study uses three widely accepted global reconstruction of cropland and pastureland in combination with common wood harvest and urban land data set to provide three distinct estimates of historical land-cover change and underlying land-use conversions. Hence, these distinct historical reconstructions offer a wide range of plausible regional estimates of uncertainty and extent to which different ecosystem have undergone changes. The three estimates use a consistent methodology, and start with a common land-cover map during pre-industrial conditions (year 1765), taking different courses as determined by the land-use/management datasets (cropland, pastureland, urbanization and wood harvest) to attain forest area distributions close to satellite estimates of forests for contemporary period. The satellite based estimates of forest area are based on MODIS sensor. All data uses the WGS84 spatial coordinate system for mapping.

Resources

Name Format Description Link
33 Data Center Documentation describing the production and use of the Historical Land-Cover Change and Land-Use Conversions Global Dataset ftp://eclipse.ncdc.noaa.gov/san2/landcover/land-cover_doc_c20150415.pdf
0 Information describing the background to the methods used in the production of the dataset (updated). http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2007GB002952/full
21 Science paper describing background to the methods used in the production of the dataset. http://cdiac.ornl.gov/trends/landuse/houghton/houghton.html
0 Science paper with more information about the science and production of the dataset. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11707-012-0314-2
0 Science paper with more information about the science and production of the dataset. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.12207/abstract
0 Overview of the GCOS Essential Climate Variables. https://public.wmo.int/en/programmes/global-climate-observing-system/essential-climate-variables
0 Landing page for the dataset. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/metadata/geoportal/rest/metadata/item/gov.noaa.ncdc:C00814/html
21 Download the Historical Land-Cover Change and Land-Use Dataset using THREDDS catalog and subsetting service https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/thredds/satellite/landcover.html
0 NCEI home page with information, data access and contact information. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov
0 The information provided on this page seeks to define how the GCMD Keywords are structured, used and accessed. It also provides information on how users can participate in the further development of the keywords. https://earthdata.nasa.gov/about/gcmd/global-change-master-directory-gcmd-keywords
0 Direct download of netCDF files using FTP ftp://eclipse.ncdc.noaa.gov/san2/landcover/
0 The information provided on this page seeks to define how the GCMD Keywords are structured, used and accessed. It also provides information on how users can participate in the further development of the keywords. https://earthdata.nasa.gov/about/gcmd/global-change-master-directory-gcmd-keywords
0 Science paper describing background to the methods used in the production of the dataset. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1466-8238.2010.00587.x/abstract
21 Originator website for Land-Cover Change and Land Use Conversions http://climate.atmos.uiuc.edu/atuljain/availabledata.html
0 The information provided on this page seeks to define how the GCMD Keywords are structured, used and accessed. It also provides information on how users can participate in the further development of the keywords. https://earthdata.nasa.gov/about/gcmd/global-change-master-directory-gcmd-keywords

Tags

  • human dimensions
  • agricultural lands
  • forest science
  • land surface
  • reforestation
  • environmental governance/management
  • ecosystems
  • shrubland/scrub
  • national climatic data center
  • nesdis
  • terrestrial - land cover
  • human settlements
  • evergreen vegetation
  • biosphere
  • grasslands
  • agriculture
  • vegetation index
  • dominant species
  • noaa
  • urban lands
  • land use classes
  • afforestation/reforestation
  • u.s. department of commerce
  • land use/land cover
  • earth science
  • geographic region
  • urban areas
  • vegetation
  • doc/noaa/nesdis/ncei
  • landscape
  • savannas
  • vegetation cover
  • forests
  • land management
  • doc/noaa/nesdis/ncdc
  • deciduous vegetation
  • deserts
  • terrestrial ecosystems
  • anthropogenic/human influenced ecosystems
  • national centers for environmental information
  • global land
  • land use/land cover classification

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Categories