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

Published by DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce | Catalog Last Checked: April 12, 2026 at 09:15 PM | Dataset Last Updated: September 06, 2012 at 12:00 AM
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

13 resources available

  • NCEI Dataset Landing Page

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  • FTP Download for the Historical Land-Cover Change and Land-Use Dataset

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  • THREDDS catalog server

    TEXT/HTML
    Visit Page

  • Data Documentation for Dataset 9821 Historical Land-Cover Change and Land-Use Conversions Global Dataset

    PDF
    Download

  • Farming the planet: 1. Geographic distribution of global agricultural lands in the year 2000

    TEXT/HTML
    Visit Page

  • The HYDE 3.1 spatially explicit database of human-induced land-use change over the past 12,000 years

    TEXT/HTML
    Visit Page

  • Carbon flux to the atmosphere from land use changes: 1850-2005. In: A Compendium of Data on Global Change.

    TEXT/HTML
    Visit Page

  • Three distinct global estimates of historical land-cover change and land-use conversions for over 200 years

    PLACEHOLDER/VALUE
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  • CO₂ emissions from land-use change affected more by nitrogen cycle than by the choice of land-cover data

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  • Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Keywords

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  • GCOS Essential Climate Variables

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  • Global Historical Land-Cover Change and Land-Use Conversions Website

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  • NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)

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Earth Science > Land Surface > Land Use/Land Cover > Land Use/Land Cover Classification > Vegetation Index Earth Science > Land Surface > Land Use/Land Cover > Land Use Classes Earth Science > Agriculture > Forest Science > Afforestation/Reforestation Earth Science > Agriculture > Forest Science > Reforestation Earth Science > Biosphere > Ecosystems > Anthropogenic/Human Influenced Ecosystems > Agricultural Lands Earth Science > Biosphere > Ecosystems > Terrestrial Ecosystems > Deserts Earth Science > Biosphere > Ecosystems > Terrestrial Ecosystems > Forests Earth Science > Biosphere > Ecosystems > Terrestrial Ecosystems > Grasslands

Complete Metadata
@type dcat:Dataset
accessLevel non-public
contactPoint 
                                            {
  "fn": "NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information",
  "@type": "vcard:Contact",
  "hasEmail": "mailto:ncei.orders@noaa.gov"
}
describedByType application/octet-steam
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.
distribution 
                                            [
  {
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    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "Data Documentation for Dataset 9821 Historical Land-Cover Change and Land-Use Conversions Global Dataset",
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    "description": "Data Center Documentation describing the production and use of the Historical Land-Cover Change and Land-Use Conversions Global Dataset",
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    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "Farming the planet: 1. Geographic distribution of global agricultural lands in the year 2000",
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    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "Information describing the background to the methods used in the production of the dataset (updated).",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "The HYDE 3.1 spatially explicit database of human-induced land-use change over the past 12,000 years",
    "accessURL": "http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1466-8238.2010.00587.x/abstract",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "Science paper describing background to the methods used in the production of the dataset.",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "Carbon flux to the atmosphere from land use changes: 1850-2005. In: A Compendium of Data on Global Change.",
    "accessURL": "http://cdiac.ornl.gov/trends/landuse/houghton/houghton.html",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "Science paper describing background to the methods used in the production of the dataset.",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
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  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "Three distinct global estimates of historical land-cover change and land-use conversions for over 200 years",
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    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "CO₂ emissions from land-use change affected more by nitrogen cycle than by the choice of land-cover data",
    "accessURL": "http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.12207/abstract",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "Science paper with more information about the science and production of the dataset.",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Keywords",
    "accessURL": "https://earthdata.nasa.gov/about/gcmd/global-change-master-directory-gcmd-keywords",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "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.",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "GCOS Essential Climate Variables",
    "accessURL": "https://public.wmo.int/en/programmes/global-climate-observing-system/essential-climate-variables",
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    "description": "Overview of the GCOS Essential Climate Variables.",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "Global Historical Land-Cover Change and Land-Use Conversions Website",
    "accessURL": "http://climate.atmos.uiuc.edu/atuljain/availabledata.html",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "Originator website for Land-Cover Change and Land Use Conversions",
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    "title": "NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)",
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    "description": "NCEI home page with information, data access and contact information.",
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identifier https://data.noaa.gov/waf/NOAA/NESDIS/ncei/aim/iso/xml/C00814.xml
issued 2012-09-06T00:00:00.000+00:00
keyword 
                                            [
  "Earth Science > Land Surface > Land Use/Land Cover > Land Use/Land Cover Classification > Vegetation Index",
  "Earth Science > Land Surface > Land Use/Land Cover > Land Use Classes",
  "Earth Science > Agriculture > Forest Science > Afforestation/Reforestation",
  "Earth Science > Agriculture > Forest Science > Reforestation",
  "Earth Science > Biosphere > Ecosystems > Anthropogenic/Human Influenced Ecosystems > Agricultural Lands",
  "Earth Science > Biosphere > Ecosystems > Terrestrial Ecosystems > Deserts",
  "Earth Science > Biosphere > Ecosystems > Terrestrial Ecosystems > Forests",
  "Earth Science > Biosphere > Ecosystems > Terrestrial Ecosystems > Grasslands",
  "Earth Science > Biosphere > Ecosystems > Terrestrial Ecosystems > Savannas",
  "Earth Science > Biosphere > Ecosystems > Terrestrial Ecosystems > Shrubland/Scrub",
  "Earth Science > Biosphere > Ecosystems > Anthropogenic/Human Influenced Ecosystems > Urban Lands",
  "Earth Science > Biosphere > Vegetation > Afforestation/Reforestation",
  "Earth Science > Biosphere > Vegetation > Deciduous Vegetation",
  "Earth Science > Biosphere > Vegetation > Dominant Species",
  "Earth Science > Biosphere > Vegetation > Evergreen Vegetation",
  "Earth Science > Biosphere > Vegetation > Reforestation",
  "Earth Science > Biosphere > Vegetation > Vegetation Cover",
  "Earth Science > Human Dimensions > Human Settlements > Urban Areas",
  "Earth Science > Human Dimensions > Environmental Governance/Management > Land Management",
  "Earth Science > Land Surface > Landscape > Reforestation",
  "Terrestrial - Land Cover",
  "Geographic Region > Global Land",
  "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCDC > National Climatic Data Center, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce",
  "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce"
]
landingPage http://climate.atmos.uiuc.edu/atuljain/availabledata.html
language 
                                            []
license https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
modified 2012-09-06T00:00:00.000+00:00
publisher 
                                            {
  "name": "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce",
  "@type": "org:Organization"
}
references 
                                            [
  "ftp://eclipse.ncdc.noaa.gov/san2/landcover/land-cover_doc_c20150415.pdf",
  "http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2007GB002952/full",
  "http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1466-8238.2010.00587.x/abstract",
  "http://cdiac.ornl.gov/trends/landuse/houghton/houghton.html",
  "http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11707-012-0314-2",
  "http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.12207/abstract"
]
rights otherRestrictions
spatial 180.0,-90.0,-180.0,90.0
temporal 1770-01-01T00:00:00+00:00/2010-12-31T00:00:00+00:00
title Historical Land-Cover Change and Land-Use Conversions Global Dataset

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