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Temporary Dataset Download: Land degradation debt

Dataset Access Expires on

24-January-2026

Notifications

  1. The data provided has been prepared for use by internal research activities in the Joint Research Centre (JRC, Ispra) in collaboration with ETH Zurich, University of Pavia, UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and Crother Lab (ETHZ). The work contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Land Degradation Neutrality indicator 15.3.1.
  2. The data were developed for research purposes of the JRC (European Commission). The JRC and other partners do not accept any liability whatsoever for any error, missing data or omission in the data, or for any loss or damage arising from its use. The JRC agrees to provide the data free of charge but is not bound to justify the content and values contained in the databases.
  3. The permission to use the data specified above is granted on condition that, under NO CIRCUMSTANCES are these data passed to third parties. They can be used for any purpose, including commercial gain.
  4. The user agrees to: 
       a) Make proper reference to the source of the data when disseminating the results to which this agreement relates; 
       b) Participate in the verification of the data (e.g. by noting and reporting any errors or omissions discovered to the JRC).

Data includes the 4 raster files (TIFF) in 0.4 degrees resolution. a) tree cover,  b) soil erosion c) above ground carbon d) below ground carbon.

We define as environmental debt:(a) the difference between natural forest potential and actual tree cover globally (b) the difference between natural soil erosion and actual soil erosion globally (c) the difference between natural above-ground carbon and actual above-ground carbon globally (d) the difference between natural below-ground carbon and current below-ground (0–30 cm) carbon globally.

Units: Erosion = Mg/ha/yr. Trees = ha per km2. Carbon above-ground = Mg C/ha. Carbon below-ground = Mg C/ha

Details about the input data/methodology/ units can be found in the Supporting information of the article. The original datasets belong to Hanset et al. (2013) (tree cover),  Borrelli et al., (2017) (soil erosion), Bastin et al. (2019)  (above-ground carbon), Sanderman et al., (2017) (below ground carbon).

Reference: Wuepper, D., Borrelli, P., Panagos, P., Lauber, T., Crowther, T., Thomas, A. and Robinson, D.A., 2021. A ‘debt’ based approach to land degradation as an indicator of global change. Global Change Biology, 27(21): 5407-5410.

Wuepper, D., Borrelli, P., Panagos, P., Lauber, T., Crowther, T., Thomas, A. and Robinson, D.A., 2021. A ‘debt’ based approach to land degradation as an indicator of global change. Global Change Biology, 27(21): 5407-5410.

Joint Research Centre - European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC)
ID 123582
Date - Time Sat, 01/10/2026 - 10:42
Name of User Nishanka Buragohain
Organization Student
Type of Organization Research Organization
-- Other
E-mail nickgohain2@gmail.com
Purpose I need this data for various geosptial analysis
Notes

When making reference to the ESDAC

  • Panagos, P., Van Liedekerke, M., Borrelli, P., Köninger, J., Ballabio, C., Orgiazzi, A., Lugato, E., Liakos, L., Hervas, J., Jones, A.  Montanarella, L. 2022. European Soil Data Centre 2.0: Soil data and knowledge in support of the EU policies. European Journal of Soil Science, 73(6), e13315. DOI: 10.1111/ejss.13315
  • Panagos P., Van Liedekerke M., Jones A., Montanarella L., “European Soil Data Centre: Response to European policy support and public data requirements”; (2012) Land Use Policy, 29 (2), pp. 329-338. doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2011.07.003
  • European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC), esdac.jrc.ec.europa.eu, European Commission, Joint Research Centre