LandCube: A global land-system data cube for 1961-2020

LandCube aims at quantifying global land-use changes of the last half-century and at scrutinizing their underlying social and ecological dynamics. Land use denotes the sum of arrangements and activities applied to land, for instance for the provision of food, feed, fibres and fuels, but also for carbon sequestration from the atmosphere, climate regulation, for recreation or biodiversity conservation. Many of the resources land systems provide cannot be replaced by other materials or resources, which renders land use a critical activity of society. Furthermore, because land is a finite resource, land competition frequently emerges as a sustainability challenge. Land use is also an important driver of key environmental detriments, such as biodiversity loss, degradation and climate change. Climate, on the other hand, is a strong determinant of ecosystem processes, such as ecological productivity or carbon sequestration, and a vital driver of land use. With ongoing climate change, the sustainability challenges attached to land use are expected to aggravate in the near future. This renders a well-founded understanding of land-use change desirable in the context of sustainable development. Currently, however, datasets that allow to assess land-use changes and analyse their underlying drivers in a comprehensive way scarcely exist. LandCube aims to close this knowledge gap. It establishes a global land-system data cube, i.e. a compilation of consistent, multidimensional global maps in time series, for the period 1961-2020. This data cube will cover the global land surface, be of high spatial detail (resolution of approximately 10 km at the equator) and provide annual information on ecological (e.g. land use and intensity, carbon fluxes and stocks, climate data) and socioeconomic parameters (e.g. population, livestock, food, feed, fibers, fuel consumption, trade). Based on this database, LandCube will explore the nature of global land-use change, identify ubiquitous patterns of change across regions and continents, analyse underlying drivers of change, and scrutinize the role of climatic and political extreme events. In particular the role of climate extreme events in shaping land use trajectories is currently not well understood, despite the fact that they are projected to significantly increase in the future. This is a knowledge gap LandCube aims to directly address and thus to contribute to advancing the understanding of socio- ecological resilience, i.e. the ability of societies to cope with or respond to such external perturbations.