Quantifying the dynamics of land use change is critical in tackling global societal challenges such as food security, climate change, and biodiversity loss. Here we analyse the dynamics of global land use change at an unprecedented spatial resolution by combining multiple open data streams (remote sensing, reconstructions and statistics) to create the HIstoric Land Dynamics Assessment + (HILDA +). We estimate that land use change has affected almost a third (32%) of the global land area in just six decades (1960-2019) and, thus, is around four times greater in extent than previously estimated from long-term land change assessments.
"on average, a land area of about twice the size of Germany (720,000 km²) has changed every year since 1960."
Winkler, K., Fuchs, R., Rounsevell, M. et al. Global land use changes are four times greater than previously estimated. Nat Commun 12, 2501 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22702-2