Global Land-Use Harmonization Maps for Carbon Budgeting

LUH2-GCB2019 provides 0.25-degree gridded, global maps of fractional land-use states, transitions, and management practices from 850 to 2019. This dataset is an update prepared as required input for land models in the annual Global Carbon Budget assessments, incorporating corrected data for cropland and grazing areas in Brazil since 1950. It is produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Use Cases

• Modeling agricultural expansion and deforestation impacts on carbon fluxes using land-use transition data.
• Calibrating Dynamic Global Vegetation Models with gridded fractional land-use states like cropland and grazing areas.
• Analyzing long-term trends in afforestation and wood harvesting from 850-2019.
• Assessing the impact of shifting cultivation and crop rotation practices on land cover.

Strengths

• Provides a long-term, consistent time series spanning 1,170 years (850-2019).
• Features high-resolution 0.25-degree gridded global maps for detailed spatial analysis.
• Incorporates corrected historical data for the critical region of Brazil back to 1950.
• Cross-platform presence on datagov and nasa_earthdata signals its established importance for carbon budget modeling.

Limitations

• Specific row counts, column names, and dataset size are unknown across all sources.
• There is a conflict regarding the last update date: datagov lists 2026-03-13, while nasa_earthdata lists 2019-12-31.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Gridded mapping and harmonization of historical land-use data for model input.

Time Range

850-2019

Freshness

2026-03-13

Geography

Global