New anthropogenic land use estimates for the Holocene; HYDE 3.2

We estimate that global population increased from 4.4 million people in 10000 BCE to 7310 million in 2015 CE, resulting in a global population density increase of < 0.1 cap km⁻² to almost 56 cap km⁻² respectively. The urban built-up area evolved from almost zero to roughly 450 Mha at present, still only less than 0.5 % of the total land surface of the globe.

Cropland occupied approximately less than 1 % of the global land area for a long time period until 1000 CE, quite similar like the grazing land area. In the next centuries the share of global cropland slowly grew to 2.3 % in 1700 CE (ca. 294 Mha), 4.5 % in 1850 CE (580 Mha) and 11 % in 2015 CE (ca. 1564 Mha). Cropland can be further divided into rain-fed and irrigated land, and these categories can be further divided into rice and non-rice. Rainfed croplands are much more common with 2.2 % in 1700 CE (294 Mha), 4.2 % (552 Mha) in 1850 CE and 10 % (1298 Mha) in 2015 CE, while irrigated croplands used less than 0.05 % (5 Mha), 0.2 % (28 Mha) and 2.0 % in 2015 CE (266 Mha) resp. We estimate the irrigated rice area (paddy) at 0.02 % in 1700 CE (2.7 Mha), 0.1 % (127 Mha) in 1850 CE and 0.6 % in 2015 CE (73 Mha).

The share of grazing land grew from 5.1 % in 1700 CE (668 Mha) to 9.2 % in 1850 CE (1200 Mha) and 25.2 % in 2015 CE (3284 Mha). Land used for grazing can be divided into more intensively used pasture and less (or not) managed rangeland. Pasture occupied 1.1 % in 1700 CE (149 Mha), 2.0 % in 1850 CE (257 Mha) and 6.1 % (800 Mha) in 2015 CE, while rangelands usually occupy more space due to the occurrence in more arid regions and thus lower yields to sustain livestock. We estimate 4 % in 1700 CE (519 Mha), 7.2 % in 1850 CE (943 Mha) and 19 % in 2015 CE (2483 Mha).