Identifying Land Use and Land-Use Changes (LULUC): A Global LULUC Matrix

Land
use and land-use changes (LULUC) information is essential
to determine the environmental impacts of anthropogenic land-use and
conversion. However, existing data sets are either local-scale or
they quantify land occupation per land-use type rather than providing
information on land-use changes. Here we combined the strengths of
the remotely sensed MODIS land cover data set and FAOSTAT land-use
data to obtain a database including a collection of 231 country-specific
LULUC matrixes, as suggested by the IPCC. We produced two versions
of each matrix: version 1, identifying forestland based on canopy
cover criteria; version 2, distinguishing primary, secondary, planted
forests and permanent crops. The outcome was a first country-based,
consistent set of spatially explicit LULUC matrixes. The database
facilitates a more holistic assessment of land-use changes, quantifying
changes that occur between land classes from 2001 to 2012, providing
crucial information for assessing environmental impacts caused by
LULUC. The data allow global-scale land-use change analyses, requiring
a distinction between land types based not only on land cover but
also on land uses. The spatially explicit data set may also serve
as a starting point for further studies aiming at determining the
drivers of land-use change supported by spatial statistical modeling.