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Chapter 2: Characterizing Historic and Current Land Use and Land Cover Attributes and Dynamics

Improved scientific knowledge of historic and current land use and land cover changes is required as a basis for understanding the dynamics and trends in land use and land cover change and   increasing our understanding of the processes by which changes occur and the impacts of land management and decision-making on change. This characterization provides a baseline for monitoring land use and land cover change; developing understanding that allows models to be developed that project land use and land cover change into the future, and for an improved ability to couple both land use and land cover with research in climate, ecosystems, the carbon and hydrological cycles, and human systems.  

Specific Research Goals

2.1. Improve the specification of land use/land cover data requirements from the broad range of users (2 years - Priority 1).

LULCC scientists and stakeholders and scientists in other elements of the CCSP require data on land use and land cover.   These users have varying requirements of the types of information required about land use, land management and land cover, spatial and temporal scales required, accuracy, and standardization and consistency across time and space scales. An improved specification of data requirements is needed to ensure that the necessary data sets are being provided and to guide the development of the emerging global integrated observing systems.

2.2. Achieve continuity in ground-based and satellite-derived land cover observations (Ongoing - Priority 1).

Consistent long term observations from multiple satellite sensors and ground-based sources are a prerequisite for quantifying land use and land cover change.   Reliable land use and land cover data can only be developed if data records are derived from repeated and consistent observations and science-quality measurements.   Continuity in data collection is a priority goal for the land use and land cover element placing an emphasis on establishing operational data collection systems and a commitment from federal agencies to provide the data. In addition to ground-based measurements, a combination of long-term satellite observations is needed, for example moderate resolution data (250m -1km) for mapping of land cover and detecting changes in land cover, vegetation and crop condition, high resolution data (10m-30m) for characterizing and measuring land cover change and   sample hyper-spatial resolution data (1m-3m) for characterizing land use. Particular attention is needed by the USG to provide an uninterrupted global time series of Landsat class measurements in an operational framework. International cooperation can enhance the availability of both satellite and ground-based measurements, for example through the Global Observation of Forest Cover/Global Observation of Landcover Dynamics (GOFC/GOLD) project in the framework of the Integrated Global Observing System (IGOS).

2. 3. Enhance ground-based, systematic, spatially explicit observations to understand land use (On-going – Priority 2).

Characterization of land use requires the integration of ground-based survey and census data with remotely sensed data.   This requires ground-based data to be as disaggregated and spatially explicit as possible. Significant progress needs to be made to make available spatially explicit ground-based land use data. This will require the cooperation of federal agencies that have so far had limited input to the global change research program.

2. 4 .   Improve access to spatially explicit land use data for the land use science research community (On-going- Priority 2).

Making spatially explicit socioeconomic and land use data available to the research community will improve the quality and quantity of research on land use and land cover change but raises legal and ethical issues associated with data and confidentiality. There are a number of proposed, but largely untested,   solutions to confidentiality issues, such as creation and designation of a ‘safe room’, explicit data security plans associated with a given institution, transformation of the data such that a particular parcel, person, or group cannot be identified with precision. Investigators need to be encouraged and possibly required through funding, to make data available to a broader community, perhaps through greater use of dedicated data clearinghouses.  

2.5. Develop standardized land use data sets and models that are accessible to both researchers and stakeholders (6 years - Priority 1).

Land use and land cover data sets serve important roles in several sectors of CCSP research, providing model inputs and a means to assess the impacts of different land management strategies. Periodic global inventories of land cover of known accuracy need to be generated using standardized methods and made widely available. Most countries need to monitor land cover change on an annual basis. Standardized LULCC models need to be developed and made broadly available to scientists and stakeholders to facilitate exploration of the impacts of different land management scenarios.

2. 6. Education and training todevelop a research community with competency in land use science (On-going – Priority 2).  

For LULCC research, the need for integration of skills, theory, data, and techniques from multiple disciplines, coupled with the relative recent application of land use science in some disciplines, raises an important set of issues involving education, training and funding. Attention needs to be given to ensure a supply of scientists trained in interdisciplinary research, for example trained in both remote sensing and ground-based approaches to studying land cover and land use change. A program addressing land use at the different levels of the education system is proposed, including introduction of land use science into the Kindergarten to High School educational arena, development of a land use science curriculum at the graduate level and short-term graduate training.

2.7. Develop systematic approaches to the acquisition, compilation, organization, and accessibility of data on past changes in land cover and land use (6 years – Priority 2).

The provision of consistent time series of historical data is needed to enable the testing and comparison of models of land use change. Coordination of this activity with similar activities in partner international programs e.g. IGBP is strongly recommended.   

Timeline and Costs

Total cost to realize this research component on characterizing historic and current land use and land cover characteristics and dynamics projected over the ten year period is c. $40 million, or $4 million per year. This would cover the research costs but does not include the cost of the underpinning satellite or in-situ data collection.