Euclidean Distances Between Past Northern Hemisphere Climate and Future Conditions in Austrian Ecoregions Based on CHELSA v2.1

This dataset provides Euclidean distances between historical climate conditions across the Northern Hemisphere and projected future climate conditions in Austrian forest ecoregions (see file forest_ecoregions.gpkg for region outlines) as defined by the Austrian Research Centre for Forests (2020). The distances are calculated using climate variables from the CHELSA v2.1 dataset (Karger et al., 2017), incorporating high-resolution temperature and precipitation data as well as climate indicators.

The dataset enables the assessment of climatic similarity between past and future conditions, supporting studies on climate analogues, ecological adaptation, and forest resilience.

Key Features:

Input data source: CHELSA v2.1 high-resolution climate data (Karger et al., 2018)

Temporal extent:

Two climate normal periods (2041-2070, 2071-2100) 

Reference period: 1990-2020

Spatial extent:

Northern hemisphere

Reference area: Austria

Variables used: Temperature, precipitation, and other key climate indicators (see CHELSA_variables.csv for a full list of variables)

Distance metric: Euclidean distance 

Format: GeoTIFF

CRS: EPSG:4326

Austria forest ecoregions:

German
English
Abbreviation

Innenalpen
Central Alps
CA

Nördliche Zwischenalpen
North Intermediate Alps
NIA

Östliche und südliche Zwischenalpen
East and South Intermediate Alps
ESIA

Nördliche Randalpen
North Border of the Alps
NBA

Östliche Randalpen
East Border o the Alps
EBA

Südliche Randalpen
South Border of the Alps
SBA

Nördliches Alpenvorland
Northern Foothills
NH

Sommerwarmer Osten
Warm Summer Eastern Regions
WSER

Mühl- und Waldviertel
Mühl- and Waldviertel
MWV

References:

Austrian Research Centre for Forests (2020): Die forstlichen Wuchsgebiete Österreichs. https://www.bfw.gv.at/die-forstlichen-wuchsgebiete-oesterreichs/

Karger, D.N., Conrad, O., Böhner, J., Kawohl, T., Kreft, H., Soria-Auza, R.W., Zimmermann, N.E., Linder, P., Kessler, M. (2017): Climatologies at high resolution for the Earth land surface areas. Scientific Data. 4 170122. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.122

Karger D.N., Conrad, O., Böhner, J., Kawohl, T., Kreft, H., Soria-Auza, R.W., Zimmermann, N.E, Linder, H.P., Kessler, M. (2018): Data from: Climatologies at high resolution for the earth’s land surface areas. EnviDat. https://doi.org/10.16904/envidat.228.v2.1

Karger D.N., Brun P. and Zimmermann N.E. (2021): CHELSA V2.1: Technical specification. https://chelsa-climate.org/wp-admin/download-page/CHELSA_tech_specification_V2.pdf