A global land-system data cube 1961-2018

Improving the knowledge base on socio-ecological, spatio-temporal dynamics of land use is a pivotal task for informing policy making to tackle major daunting sustainability challenges. Land systems, i.e. the terrestrial component of the Earth system that encompasses all processes and activities related to the human use of land are intimately linked with issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and food security. Furthermore, land use is key for human society by providing essential ecosystem services, including the biophysical basis of human sustenance. The interplay of socio-ecological drivers, such as land demand for food provision, natural protection and climate mitigation, and a changing climate, both in terms of averages as well as the occurrence of extreme events, is highly complex and dynamic. Scrutinizing the feedback loops that shape and constrain trajectories requires moving beyond simple land-change analyses by employing interdisciplinary approaches based on suitable, comprehensive databases. Such databases are, however, however, largely lacking. The project LandCube will generate such databases. It will establish a land system data cube that consistently integrates land-system information, i.e. ecological as well as socioeconomic information, in a wall-to-wall representation for the period 1961-2018, unprecedented in land system research. This data cube will provide the opportunity to exploit the complementary strengths of data- and hypothesis-driven analyses, it will enable multivariate, multiscalar analyses of socio-ecological dynamics of land-use and management change and their dependence on natural and socioeconomic conditions, with a particular focus on extreme events. Ensuing, LandCube aims to contribute to an advanced understanding on the socio-ecological conditions that determine the future option space for sustainable land management.e land management.