The land cover area is presented for aggregated land-cover types corresponding to the SRES land-cover types (IPCC, 2000).
- Forest. Forest areas are derived from the actual distribution of natural vegetation based on the (changes in) potential vegetation and the actual land use. For each vegetation class a specific, prescribed fraction is assumed to contain forest, e.g. 10% for tundra, 30% for grassland and steppe, 50% for savanna, 60% for scrubland, 90% for tropical woodland and 100% for tropical forests (and other forest types; see table D.1 in Alcamo et al., 1998).
- Agricultural land is the sum of the area of crops and grasslands.
- Other. Other includes all other non-forest and non-agricultural land cover types, including extensive grassland.
