Historical Global Land Cover And Use From 1700

The ISLSCP II Historical Land Cover and Land Use dataset provides a 300-year record of global land use changes from 1700 to 1990. It was developed by NASA using the HYDE database, which synthesizes historical statistical inventories like census data and land surveys with spatial analysis techniques. This geographically-explicit dataset supports the validation of integrated global change models.

Use Cases

• Validating integrated global environmental change models that require long-term land use dynamics.
• Analyzing historical trends in agricultural land expansion or contraction over centuries.
• Providing a spatially-explicit baseline for studies on historical vegetation cover and land surface characteristics.
• Supporting research on the long-term impacts of land use change on climate and biogeochemical systems.

Strengths

• Covers an extensive 300-year historical period from 1700 to 1990.
• Built on the HYDE database using historical statistical inventories like census data and land surveys.
• Geographically-explicit, enabling spatial analysis of land use change.

Limitations

• Specific row counts, column names, and dataset size are not provided by any source.
• Sources conflict on the last update date: one platform lists 2026-03-13, while another lists 1990-12-31.
• The license is specified only as 'other-license-specified', requiring further investigation for reuse.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), using the HYDE historical database.

Collection Method

Created by synthesizing historical statistical inventories (census, tax records, surveys) with spatial analysis techniques.

Time Range

1700 to 1990

Freshness

2026-03-13

Geography

Global