Chapter 2 - Climate and land use data usages in research and administration units

Abstract

Nowadays, the data acquisition, data processing, and data availability for various kinds of calculations are very important. In the field of Earth Sciences, the challenges of climate change and land use are currently of high interest for researchers from universities, institutions, and administration units from all over the world. On each continent and in each developed country there are specialized researchers that collect, clean, analyze, and deliver “ready to use” data in the field of climate and land use. It is obvious that global warming has several implications for a multitude of environmental issues, including glaciers, water resources, agriculture, industrial and domestic water demand, biology, and many others. In addition, the exploitation of various resources and the use of land parcels in some of regions results in drastic modifications of land use. Several national and international projects have studied the two main problems of climate change and land use modifications and some of these projects are currently ongoing. The climate and land use are not only past issues, but the academic community is interested in the evolution of the two threats. For this reason, several climate models were established under various projections and scenarios of the Representative Concentration Pathway. There are many institutions and agencies that provide global and regional climate models, such as WorldClim, National Weather Service, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), ENSEMBLES Regional Climate Models, University of East Anglia, and also reputable scientists. In North America and South America, the main climate models used for future projections are BCC-CSM2-MR, CNRM-CM6-1, CNRM-ESM2-1, CanESM5, GFDL-ESM4, IPSL-CM6A-LR, MIROC-ES2L, MIROC6, and MRI-ESM2-0. In Europe, CanESM2, ACCESS1.0, IPSL-CM5A-MR, MIROC5, MPI-ESM-LR, CCSM4, HadGEM2-ES, CNRM-CM5, CSIRO Mk 3.6, GFDL-CM3, INM-CM4, MRI-CGCM3, MIROC-ESM, CESM1-CAM5, and GISS-E2R climate models were developed. In Asia, the following climate models are available: ACCESS1–3, bcc-csm1-1-m, CanESM2, CMCC-CM, CNRM-CM5, CSIRO-Mk3–6-0, GFDL-CM3, HadGEM2-ES, and IPSL-CM5A-MR. In Australia, CSIRO and ACCESS climate models were developed. The future projections of land use were completed at a global level and in different regions by the United States Geological Survey EROS Archive, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, European Environmental Agency, and HERCULES. In this chapter, we will indicate the main data and “ready to use” products with respect to the climate and land use. These data were collected and managed by specialists from different institutions and could be used in various surveys both in artificial systems and environmental studies.