History Database of the Global Environment 2.0

This HYDE 2.0 version is an updated version from 'The IMAGE 2 Hundred Year (1890 1990) Data Base of the Global Environment (HYDE) (1.0) called, and the 'A Hundred Year (1890 1990) Database for Integrated Environmental Assessments (HYDE, version 1.1). Testing against historical data is an important step for validating integrated models of global environmental change. Owing to long time lags in the climate system, these models should aim the simulation of the land use dynamics for long periods, i.e., spanning decades up to a century. Developing such models requires understanding of past and current trends and is therefore strongly data dependent. For this purpose, a history database of the global environment has been developed: HYDE. The period covered is 1700 to 2000. Spatial resolution is 5 arc minutes (approx. 85 km2 at the equator), the files are in ESRI ASCII grid format. Contact person: Kees Klein Goldewijk - c.g.m.kleingoldewijk@uu.nl Please note that this is an old version. Data are in zipped format, unpack with Winzip.