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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 | Metadata Last Checked: January 27, 2026 | Last Modified: 2012-09-06T00:00:00.000+00:00
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.

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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 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

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