Global land change from 1982 to 2016

• Published in: Nature (London) Vol. 560; no. 7720; pp. 639 - 643
• Main Authors: Song, Xiao-Peng, Hansen, Matthew C., Stehman, Stephen V., Potapov, Peter V., Tyukavina, Alexandra, Vermote, Eric F., Townshend, John R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01-08-2018; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 704/158/2165; 704/172/4081; 704/47/4113; 704/844/685; 706/1143; Afforestation; Agricultural expansion; Agricultural land; Agriculture; Agriculture - statistics & numerical data; Agriculture - trends; Aridity; Biogeochemical cycles; Biogeochemistry; Carbon; Climate and vegetation; Climate change; Climate Change - statistics & numerical data; Climate models; Cloud-climate relationships; Deforestation; Domains; Earth (Planet); Ecosystem; Ecosystem services; Ecosystems; Energy balance; Environmental aspects; Environmental changes; Environmental Monitoring; Food; Forestry - statistics & numerical data; Forestry - trends; Global temperature changes; Ground cover; Human Activities - statistics & numerical data; Human Activities - trends; Humanities and Social Sciences; Land cover; Land degradation; Land use; Letter; Mountain climates; multidisciplinary; Net losses; Observations; Reforestation; Satellite data; Satellite Imagery; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Surface properties; Surface science; Trees - growth & development; Trends; Tropical environments; Urbanization; Vegetation; Vegetation cover; United States > US; Africa; Vegetation Continuous Fields; Land Change Map; Climate Domain; Indirect Drivers; Bare Ground (BG)
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0411-9

Land change is a cause and consequence of global environmental change
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. Changes in land use and land cover considerably alter the Earth’s energy balance and biogeochemical cycles, which contributes to climate change and—in turn—affects land surface properties and the provision of ecosystem services
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. However, quantification of global land change is lacking. Here we analyse 35 years’ worth of satellite data and provide a comprehensive record of global land-change dynamics during the period 1982–2016. We show that—contrary to the prevailing view that forest area has declined globally
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—tree cover has increased by 2.24 million km
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(+7.1% relative to the 1982 level). This overall net gain is the result of a net loss in the tropics being outweighed by a net gain in the extratropics. Global bare ground cover has decreased by 1.16 million km
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(−3.1%), most notably in agricultural regions in Asia. Of all land changes, 60% are associated with direct human activities and 40% with indirect drivers such as climate change. Land-use change exhibits regional dominance, including tropical deforestation and agricultural expansion, temperate reforestation or afforestation, cropland intensification and urbanization. Consistently across all climate domains, montane systems have gained tree cover and many arid and semi-arid ecosystems have lost vegetation cover. The mapped land changes and the driver attributions reflect a human-dominated Earth system. The dataset we developed may be used to improve the modelling of land-use changes, biogeochemical cycles and vegetation–climate interactions to advance our understanding of global environmental change
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Satellite data for the period 1982–2016 reveal changes in land use and land cover at global and regional scales that reflect patterns of land change indicative of a human-dominated Earth system.