LAND USE SCENARIOS
Land use scenarios prepared for RCP
Land use information (fractional shares in 0.5° x 0.5° resolution) is available annually for the time period 1500-2100 according to Hurtt et al (2011). Their land use harmonization database can be accessed at http://luh.umd.edu. Just follow the “data - download” links to the respective FTP site. A detailed description is presented in the README files, e.g. (http://luh.umd.edu/~luh_data/LUHa.v1_future.v1.1/readme.txt) Note that “future” refers to data / changes after 2005, and “v1.1” is only available for IMAGE and AIM, while MESSAGE and MiniCAM can be downloaded as v1 only, for the time being.
The methodology adopted to implement the Hurtt scenarios in CLM (e.g. conversion of broad land categories to plant functional types, PFTs) is reported in the following document at page 224:
http://www.cesm.ucar.edu/models/cesm1.0/clm/CLM4_Tech_Note.pdf
The Hurtt et al. database is, to our knowledge, still the most up-to-date global land use information. The extent of its use in ECLAIRE is not fully clear, as many models use embedded land use information which is not so easy to trace
Land use scenarios under CMIP6
New activities of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project have started (Meehl et al., 2014) which will also include updated land use scenarios, again coordinated by G. Hurtt. At this time, no new results are available