Demeter Input Files for 0.05 degree LULCC from GCAM SSP/RCP/GCM Scenario Runs

Global future land use (LU) is an important input for Earth system models for projecting Earth system dynamics and is critical for many modeling studies on future global change. Here we generated a new global gridded LU dataset using the Global Change Analysis Model (GCAM ) and a geospatial downscaling model (Demeter) under diverse Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) scenarios. Compared to existing similar datasets, the presented dataset has a higher spatial resolution (0.05°×0.05°) and is spread under more diverse SSP-RCP scenarios (in total 15 scenarios), and considers uncertainties from the forcing climates. The presented dataset will be useful for global Earth system modeling studies, especially for the analysis of the impacts of land use and land cover change and socioeconomics, as well as the characterizing the uncertainties associated with these impacts.

The dataset includes the inputs for Demeter to produce projected global gridded land cover (excluding the Antarctic) for the period of 2015-2100 at 0.05-degree resolution and 5-year time step under fifteen SSP-RCP scenarios driven by five GCMs (i.e., gfdl, hadgem, ipsl, miroc, and noresm), using the Global Change Analysis Model (GCAM) and a geospatial downscaling model (Demeter).  See https://github.com/JGCRI/chen_et_al_2020a for details on how to reproduce this experiment.