NUTS2 Level Land Use and Land Cover Quantifications under the Shared Socio-Economic Pathways, 2020-2050

This dataset provides consistent projections of land use and land cover (LULC) for European NUTS2 regions under the five Shared Socio-Economic Pathways (SSPs) from 2020 to 2050.

The projections are generated with G-RDEM [1], a recursive-dynamic global Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model implemented in the open-source platform CGEBox [2]. Designed to capture long-term structural change, G-RDEM simulates economic and land use dynamics directly at the NUTS2 level, avoiding the need for post-model downscaling. European Union (EU) member states follow the 2016 NUTS2 classification [3], while European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries and EU accession candidates follow the 2008 NUTS2 classification [4].

The dataset includes:
• Scenarios:
- SSP1
- SSP2
- SSP3
- SSP4
- SSP5
• Regions:
- NUTS2 regions for EU member states, EU accession candidates, and EFTA countries
- Country level results for Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, the rest of North Africa, Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine
- Continental aggregates for the rest of the world
• Land cover and corresponding land uses:
- Built-up land
* No economic land uses
- Cropland
* Apples
* Bananas/ plantains
* Barley
* Citrus fruits
* Cocoa beans
* Coffee beans
* Grapes
* Leguminosae
* Maize
* Nuts
* Oats
* Olives
* Other cereals
* Other crops
* Other fruits
* Other oilseeds
* Other roots/ tubers
* Other vegetables
* Paddy rice
* Palm oil fruit
* Plant-based fibres
* Potatoes
* Rape seed
* Rye
* Sorghum
* Soy bean
* Sugar cane/ beet
* Teas
* Tomatoes
* Wheat
* All cropland uses are further differentiated between irrigated and rainfed variants
- Managed forest
* Forestry
- Other land (rock, ice, desert)
* No economic land uses
- Pastureland
* Cattle for meat
* Raw milk
* Ruminants for meat
* Wool
- Savannah/ grassland
* No economic land uses
- Shrubland
* No economic land uses
- Unmanaged forest
* No economic land uses
• Units: mio ha
• Temporal coverage: 2020–2050, 2- and 5-year intervals
• Format: CSV and XLSX

The dataset is suitable for applications in climate impact research, ecosystem service assessment, water and biodiversity modelling, land use and land cover planning, and other policy scenario analysis.