Historical Cropland and Pasture Expansion from 1700 to 1992

Cropland areas expanded from 3-4 million km² in 1700 to 15-18 million km² in 1990, while pasture grew from 4-5 million km² to 31-33 million km². This reconstructed dataset was developed by RIVM in the Netherlands and SAGE at the University of Wisconsin-Madison using historical inventories and spatial analysis. It provides annual or decadal land use data from 1700 to 1992.

Use Cases

• Modeling historical carbon flux by tracking the conversion of natural vegetation to cropland and pasture areas over three centuries.
• Analyzing the spatial patterns of agricultural expansion at a 0.5-degree resolution to identify regional hotspots of land cover change.
• Comparing decadal (RIVM) and annual (SAGE) reconstruction methodologies for the same historical land use events.
• Studying the relationship between potential natural vegetation data and actual historical land use to assess human impact on biomes.

Strengths

• Covers a 292-year time range from 1700 to 1992, providing a long-term perspective.
• Integrates two independent reconstructions (RIVM and SAGE) from different institutions for cross-validation.
• Provides global spatial data at a consistent 0.5-degree latitude/longitude resolution.

Limitations

• Data is temporally stale, with the last update in 1992, missing nearly three decades of recent changes.
• Row and sample counts are unknown, making it difficult to assess the dataset's granularity and volume.
• Relies on reconstructed historical inventories, which may contain estimation errors and uncertainties.

Provenance

Source

National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM, Netherlands) and Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE, University of Wisconsin-Madison).

Collection Method

Reconstruction using historical statistical inventories (census, tax records, land surveys) and spatial analysis techniques.

Time Range

1700 to 1992

Freshness

1992-12-31

Geography

Global