Amazon Basin Land Cover and Soil Data for Climate Models

Approximately 50 land cover classifications detail vegetation and human land use across the Amazon Basin. This 1-degree resolution dataset, created by Wilson and Henderson-Sellers for the LBA experiment, integrates soil properties like color, texture, and drainage with primary and secondary vegetation types. It was designed for use in general circulation models and includes reliability rankings for both soil and land cover data.

Use Cases

• Parameterizing soil color and texture inputs for regional climate models.
• Analyzing the distribution of primary and secondary vegetation types for ecological studies.
• Assessing land cover change by comparing agricultural and urban use classifications.
• Evaluating data reliability for specific regions using the provided soil and land cover reliability ranks.
• Studying the coherence between soil drainage quality and vegetation cover types.

Strengths

• Includes reliability rankings for both soil data (high, good, moderate, fair, poor) and land cover data (scale of 1 to 5).
• Provides approximately 50 distinct land cover classifications, including categories for agricultural and urban uses.
• Covers a specific, large study area (10° N to 25° S, 30° to 85° W) relevant to the LBA experiment.
• Data forms a coherent set with land cover classifications compatible with the soil property data.

Limitations

• Key metadata conflicts exist: the 'last updated' date differs significantly between Data.gov (2026-03-13) and NASA Earthdata (1999-12 31).
• Specific row counts, file sizes, and detailed column names are not provided by any source.
• The dataset is a historical subset (from 1985) of a global archive, which may not reflect current conditions.

Provenance

Source

Wilson and Henderson-Sellers (1985a), subset created for the Large Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA).

Collection Method

Collated from historical maps depicting natural vegetation, forestry, agriculture, land use, and soil.

Time Range

1985

Freshness

2026-03-13 01:04:45.861450

Geography

South America, specifically the LBA study area from 10° N to 25° S, 30° to 85° W.