Agricultural Land Abandonment as a Global Land-Use Change Phenomenon

Available maps, statistics, training and validation data on abandoned agricultural lands

 

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Satellite-based global maps of cropland expansion and abandonment from 2000 and on.

https://glad.umd.edu/dataset/croplands 

Cite: Potapov, Peter, Svetlana Turubanova, Matthew C. Hansen, Alexandra Tyukavina, Viviana Zalles, Ahmad Khan, Xiao-Peng Song, Amy Pickens, Quan Shen, and Jocelyn Cortez. “Global Maps of Cropland Extent and Change Show Accelerated Cropland Expansion in the Twenty-First Century.” Nature Food 3, no. 1 (January 2022): 19–28. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00429-z.

 

Satellite imagery-based map of agricultural land abandonment and recultivation in a steppe region of Orenburg province of Russia for 1990-2000-2010-2018. https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.933133

Please cite: Prishchepov, Alexander V., Ksenia V. Myachina, Johannes Kamp, Ilya Smelansky, Svetlana Dubrovskaya, Roman Ryakhov, Dmitriy Grudinin, Ilya Yakovlev, and Ruslan Urazaliyev. “Multiple Trajectories of Grassland Fragmentation, Degradation, and Recovery in Russia’s Steppes.” Land Degradation & Development 32, no. 11 (July 15, 2021): 3220–35. https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.3976.

 

Map of agricultural land-cover change, including farmland abandonment and recultivation from 1990 till 2015 in northern Kazakhstan https://box.hu-berlin.de/f/76115576c5624468bcdc

Please cite: Baumann, Matthias, Johannes Kamp, Florian Pötzschner, Benjamin Bleyhl, Andrey Dara, Brett Hankerson, Alexander V. Prishchepov, et al. “Declining Human Pressure and Opportunities for Rewilding in the Steppes of Eurasia.” Diversity and Distributions, no. 26 (June 14, 2020): 1058–70. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13110.

 

Map of arable land (both utilized and abandoned) together with a validation data set for eight countries of the former Soviet Union (fSU), namely Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation and Ukraine. The map has a spatial resolution of 10 arc-seconds and represents the year 2010. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.880123

Please cite: Lesiv, M et al. (2018): Spatial distribution of arable and abandoned land across former Soviet Union Countries. Scientific Data, 5, 180056, https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2018.56

 

Historical cropland of the continental U.S. from 1850 to 2016, including agricultural land abandonment, USA https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.881801

Please cite: Yu, Zhen, and Chaoqun Lu. “Historical Cropland Expansion and Abandonment in the Continental U.S. during 1850 to 2016.” Global Ecology and Biogeography 27, no. 3 (March 2018): 322–33. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12697.

 

Satellite imagery-based map of agricultural land abandonment and recultivation in a steppe region of Kostanay province of Kazakhstan before 1953-1953-1961-1990-2000-2010 https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.869442

Please cite: Kraemer, Roland, Alexander V Prishchepov, Daniel Müller, Tobias Kuemmerle, Volker C Radeloff, Andrey Dara, Alexey Terekhov, and Manfred Frühauf. “Long-Term Agricultural Land-Cover Change and Potential for Cropland Expansion in the Former Virgin Lands Area of Kazakhstan.” Environmental Research Letters 10, no. 5 (May 1, 2015): 054012. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/5/054012.

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Map of abandoned farmland in Central and Eastern Europe circa 2003-2006 produced with MODIS time series satellite data is available here https://zenodo.org/records/10623840 

Please cite: Alcantara, C., T. Kuemmerle, M. Baumann, E. V. Bragina, P. Griffiths, P. Hostert, J. Knorn, D. Mueller, A.V. Prishchepov, F. Schierhorn, A. Sieber, V.C. Radeloff “Mapping the Extent of Abandoned Farmland in Central and Eastern Europe Using MODIS Time Series Satellite Data.” Environmental Research Letters 8, no. 3 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/035035.

 

Classification (a land abandonment map) from 1990 to 2000 across Poland, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania and European Russia for 1990-2000 https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.880143

Please cite: Prishchepov, A.V., V. C. Radeloff, M. Baumann, T. Kuemmerle, and D. Müller. “Effects of Institutional Changes on Land Use: Agricultural Land Abandonment during the Transition from State-Command to Market-Driven Economies in Post-Soviet Eastern Europe.” Environmental Research Letters 7, no. 2 (2012): 024021. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/7/2/024021.