Kathleen D. Morrison
Mapping past human land use using archaeological data: A new classification for global land use synthesis and data harmonization
Morrison, Kathleen D.; Hammer, Emily; Boles, Oliver; Madella, Marco; Whitehouse, Nicola; Gaillard, Marie-Jose; Bates, Jennifer; Vander Linden, Marc; Merlo, Stefania; Yao, Alice; Popova, Laura; Hill, Austin Chad; Antolin, Ferran; Bauer, Andrew; Biagetti, Stefano; Bishop, Rosie R.; Buckland, Phillip; Cruz, Pablo; Dreslerová, Dagmar; Dusseldorp, Gerrit; Ellis, Erle; Filipovic, Dragana; Foster, Thomas; Hannaford, Matthew J.; Harrison, Sandy P.; Hazarika, Manjil; Herold, Hajnalka; Hilpert, Johanna; Kaplan, Jed O.; Kay, Andrea; Klein Goldewijk, Kees; Kolář, Jan; Kyazike, Elizabeth; Laabs, Julian; Lancelotti, Carla; Lane, Paul; Lawrence, Dan; Lewis, Krista; Lombardo, Umberto; Lucarini, Giulio; Arroyo-Kalin, Manuel; Marchant, Rob; Mayle, Francis; McClatchie, Meriel; McLeester, Madeleine; Mooney, Scott; Moskal-del Hoyo, Magdalena; Navarrete, Vanessa; Ndiema, Emmanuel; Góes Neves, Eduardo; Nowak, Marek; Out, Welmoed A.; Petrie, Cameron; Phelps, Leanne N.; Pinke, Zsolt; Rostain, Stéphen; Russell,...
Authors
Emily Hammer
Oliver Boles
Marco Madella
Nicola Whitehouse
Marie-Jose Gaillard
Jennifer Bates
Marc Vander Linden
Stefania Merlo
Alice Yao
Laura Popova
Austin Chad Hill
Ferran Antolin
Andrew Bauer
Stefano Biagetti
Rosie R. Bishop
Phillip Buckland
Pablo Cruz
Dagmar Dreslerová
Gerrit Dusseldorp
Erle Ellis
Dragana Filipovic
Thomas Foster
Matthew J. Hannaford
Sandy P. Harrison
Manjil Hazarika
Hajnalka Herold
Johanna Hilpert
Jed O. Kaplan
Andrea Kay
Kees Klein Goldewijk
Jan Kolář
Elizabeth Kyazike
Julian Laabs
Carla Lancelotti
Paul Lane
Professor Daniel Lawrence dan.lawrence@durham.ac.uk
Professor
Krista Lewis
Umberto Lombardo
Giulio Lucarini
Manuel Arroyo-Kalin
Rob Marchant
Francis Mayle
Meriel McClatchie
Madeleine McLeester
Scott Mooney
Magdalena Moskal-del Hoyo
Vanessa Navarrete
Emmanuel Ndiema
Eduardo Góes Neves
Marek Nowak
Welmoed A. Out
Cameron Petrie
Leanne N. Phelps
Zsolt Pinke
Stéphen Rostain
Thembi Russell
Andrew Sluyter
Amy K. Styring
Eduardo Tamanaha
Evert Thomas
Selvakumar Veerasamy
Lynn Welton
Marco Zanon
Abstract
In the 12,000 years preceding the Industrial Revolution, human activities led to significant changes in land cover, plant and animal distributions, surface hydrology, and biochemical cycles. Earth system models suggest that this anthropogenic land cover change influenced regional and global climate. However, the representation of past land use in earth system models is currently oversimplified. As a result, there are large uncertainties in the current understanding of the past and current state of the earth system. In order to improve representation of the variety and scale of impacts that past land use had on the earth system, a global effort is underway to aggregate and synthesize archaeological and historical evidence of land use systems. Here we present a simple, hierarchical classification of land use systems designed to be used with archaeological and historical data at a global scale and a schema of codes that identify land use practices common to a range of systems, both implemented in a geospatial database. The classification scheme and database resulted from an extensive process of consultation with researchers worldwide. Our scheme is designed to deliver consistent, empirically robust data for the improvement of land use models, while simultaneously allowing for a comparative, detailed mapping of land use relevant to the needs of historical scholars. To illustrate the benefits of the classification scheme and methods for mapping historical land use, we apply it to Mesopotamia and Arabia at 6 kya (c. 4000 BCE). The scheme will be used to describe land use by the Past Global Changes (PAGES) LandCover6k working group, an international project comprised of archaeologists, historians, geographers, paleoecologists, and modelers. Beyond this, the scheme has a wide utility for creating a common language between research and policy communities, linking archaeologists with climate modelers, biodiversity conservation workers and initiatives.
Citation
Morrison, K. D., Hammer, E., Boles, O., Madella, M., Whitehouse, N., Gaillard, M.-J., Bates, J., Vander Linden, M., Merlo, S., Yao, A., Popova, L., Hill, A. C., Antolin, F., Bauer, A., Biagetti, S., Bishop, R. R., Buckland, P., Cruz, P., Dreslerová, D., Dusseldorp, G., …Zanon, M. (2021). Mapping past human land use using archaeological data: A new classification for global land use synthesis and data harmonization. PLoS ONE, 16(4), Article e0246662. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246662
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Jan 24, 2021 |
Online Publication Date | Apr 14, 2021 |
Publication Date | 2021 |
Deposit Date | Apr 16, 2021 |
Publicly Available Date | Nov 11, 2021 |
Journal | PLoS ONE |
Publisher | Public Library of Science |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 16 |
Issue | 4 |
Article Number | e0246662 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246662 |
Public URL | https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1277203 |
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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Copyright Statement
© 2021 Morrison et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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