Land Use and Land Cover

Abstract

One of the key challenges in Global Change Research is the modelling of future changes in land use and land cover as a result of socio-economic and global climate change. Such changes are calculated dynamically in the Global Change decision support system for the Upper Danube (DANUBIA), thus helping to predict the effects of Global Change in this region. For any such spatially explicit modelling, land use/land cover is the key information layer which integrates all involved natural scientific and socio-economic process models. Land cover characterises the condition of the earth’s surface and hence the properties that most directly influence water and energy fluxes, whereas land use describes the type of anthropogenic use, thus being a key parameter for modelling socio-economic processes. In order to meet all model requirements, a new tailored land use/land cover map was created with a representative overall area approximation and localisation of land use and land cover classes on basin scale, using a combination of CORINE Land Cover (CLC) data, official agricultural statistics and rule-based GIS operations. The resulting land use/land cover map can be used as initial state for modelling in DANUBIA. A total of 27 unique land use/land cover categories are distinguished in DANUBIA. The top hierarchical level is used consistently in all models, whereas the additional levels (e.g. detailed arable land classes) are individually used depending on the information needed by each model.