Dataset of 1 km cropland cover from 1690 to 1999 in Scandinavia

Xueqiong Wei,Yu Ye,Xiuqi Fang,Mats Widgren,Tiexi Chen,Beibei Li,Chengpeng Zhang

doi:10.5194/essd-13-3035-2021

Abstract

Abstract. Spatially explicit historical land cover datasets are essential not only for simulations of climate and environmental dynamics but also for projections of future land use, food security, climate, and biodiversity. However, widely used global datasets are developed for continental- to global-scale analysis and simulations. Their accuracy depends on the verification of more regional reconstruction results. This study collects cropland area data of each administrative unit (parish/municipality/county) in Scandinavia from multiple sources. The cropland area data are validated, calibrated, interpolated, and allocated into 1 km×1 km grid cells. Then, we develop a dataset with spatially explicit cropland area from 1690 to 1999. Results indicate that the cropland area increased from 1.82×106 ha to 6.71×106 ha from 1690 to 1950 and then decreased to 5.90×106 ha in 1999. Before 1810, cropland cover expanded in southern Scandinavia and remained stable in northern Scandinavia. From 1810 to 1910, northern Scandinavia experienced slight cropland expansion. The cropland area increased rapidly in the southern part of the study area before changing slightly. After 1950, the cropland areas began to decrease in most regions, especially in eastern Scandinavia. When comparing global datasets with this study, although the total Scandinavia cropland area is in agreement among SAGE (Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment), HYDE (History Database of the Global Environment ) 3.2, PJ (Pongratz Julia), and this study, the spatial patterns show considerable differences, except for in Denmark between HYDE 3.2 and this study. The dataset can be downloaded from https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.926591 (Wei et al., 2021).

Highlights

Human-influenced land is a major component of anthropogenic global changes in the Earth system (Verburg et al, 2016)
Historical land use data are important for understanding the impact of land use and land cover change (LULCC) on global change
Based on the study of Fang et al (2020), three methods can be used to assess the credibility of historical land cover datasets, including accuracy assessment, rationality assessment, and likelihood assessment

Summary

Introduction

Human-influenced land is a major component of anthropogenic global changes in the Earth system (Verburg et al, 2016). Historical land use data are important for understanding the impact of land use and land cover change (LULCC) on global change. From a fully natural vegetation state to the 20th century, it was likely that land use change led to an increase in the Earth’s albedo with a radiative forcing of −0.15 ± 0.10 W m−2 (Myhre et al, 2013). The global CO2 emissions from land use and land cover change reached a cumulative total of about 206 ± 57 Pg C from 1750 to 2018 (Gasser et al, 2020). The above conclusions of climate and environmental dynamics are all made by using spatially explicit historical land cover datasets.

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Discussion

Conclusion