Description

This data set was developed to describe the state of the global land cover in terms of 15 major vegetation types, plus water, before alteration by humans. It forms a complement to the historical croplands data set developed by Ramankutty and Foley (1999). By overlaying the two, one can determine the extent to which natural vegetation has been cleared for cultivation. This data set can be used directly within spatially-explicit climate and biogeochemical models. There are four total files in this data set. Two files contain the land cover types representing potential natural vegetation before human alteration, and two other files contain those points in the original data set submitted by the Principal Investigator that have been modified in order to match the land/water mask of the ISLSCP Initiative II.The geographic distribution of contemporary land cover types can be derived from remotely-sensed data. However, humans now dominate much of the world and there is little evidence of the pre-human-settlement natural vegetation or Potential Natural Vegetation (PNV). PNV, as defined here, does not necessarily represent the world's natural pre-human-disturbance vegetation. Rather, our definition of PNV represents the world's vegetation cover that would most likely exist now in equilibrium with present-day climate and natural disturbance, in the absence of human activities.

General Information

• This data is described at

  http://catalog.data.gov/dataset/islscp-ii-potential-natural-vegetation-cover Do you think this data is incorrect? Let us know

• This data is published by

  National Aeronautics and Space Administration Do you think this data is incorrect? Let us know

Legal Information

• The rights statement is at

  http://catalog.data.gov/dataset/islscp-ii-potential-natural-vegetation-cover Do you think this data is incorrect? Let us know

• Outside the US, this data is available under

  Creative Commons CCZero Do you think this data is incorrect? Let us know

• There are

  yes, and the rights are all held by the same person or organisation Do you think this data is incorrect? Let us know

• The content is available under

  Creative Commons CCZero Do you think this data is incorrect? Let us know

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  its data licence Do you think this data is incorrect? Let us know

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  no data about individuals Do you think this data is incorrect? Let us know

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• The data appears in this collection

  http://catalog.data.gov/organization/nasa-gov Do you think this data is incorrect? Let us know

• The accuracy or relevance of this data will

  go out of date but it is timestamped Do you think this data is incorrect? Let us know

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  backed up offsite Do you think this data is incorrect? Let us know

Technical Information

• This data is published at

  http://daac.ornl.gov/cgi-bin/dsviewer.pl?ds_id=961 Do you think this data is incorrect? Let us know

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• Find out how to contact someone about this data at

  http://catalog.data.gov/dataset/islscp-ii-potential-natural-vegetation-cover Do you think this data is incorrect? Let us know

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  http://www.data.gov/issue/?media_url=http://catalog.data.gov/dataset/islscp-ii-potential-natural-vegetation-cover Do you think this data is incorrect? Let us know