Global Cropland Cover

This website is an interactive site created by the United States Geological Survey that shows global crop production. Specifically, it produces visualizations of cropland extent/area, crop types, irrigated versus rainfed agriculture, cropping intensities, and cropland change over space and time. The data is projected using 30-meter resolution derived with Landsat imagery and examines over 1.8 billion hectares (12.6 percent of globalĀ  terrestrial area) of cropland. It also has a feature that shows where human settlements are located which is interesting because it can show disparities of food production and brings into question how certain places became large settlements. It relates to our class because of its use of Landsat, but also because of the interaction of the lithosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere that create the biosphere and dictate where crop production occurs. (https://www.usgs.gov/centers/wgsc/science/global-food-security-support-analysis-data-30-m?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects)