A Time-Varying Index of Agricultural Suitability across Europe from 1500 - 2000

This repository is dedicated to the creation of the Agricultural Suitability Index. The computation of the index has been entirely built using R version 4.3.0 (2023-04-21 ucrt) with the following device specifications: processor 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1165G7 @ 2.80GHz 2.80 GHz, installed RAM 32.0 GB (31.7 GB usable) and system type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor.

Folder Structure and Description

• Agricultural_Suitability.Rmd is the main replication file, setting the extent of the study, importing the raw data, processing the different parameters, constructing and saving the suitability index into a multi-layer raster: suit.tif. The file calls the following functions that have been compartmentalized for readability purposes. These scripts only define functions and do not need to be executed separately.
  • [fun]CRU_manipulation.R is a function that processes the raw data from the Climate Research Unit (CRU) into a list before extraction.
  • [fun]temp_data_manipulation.R is a function that processes the raw temperature data and stores into a list: the mean, minimum, and maximum average temperature before extraction.
  • [fun]pre_data_manipulation.R is a function that processes the raw precipitation data into a list before extraction.
  • [fun]evapo_grid.R is a function that computes the rate of reference evapotranspiration ($ET_0$) using the Penman-Monteith equation following the FAO GAEZ method.
• Technical_validation.R import, compare and save the various outputs from the technical validation part.
• Figures_tables.R generates all figures and tables shown in the manuscript.
• Pre_raster_generation.R imports, processes, and saves the raw precipitation data into multi-layer rasters for the Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn season: precip_win.tif, precip_spr.tif, precip_sum.tif, precip_aut.tif.
• Temp_raster_generation.R imports, processes, and saves the raw temperature data into multi-layer rasters for the Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn season: temp_win.tif, temp_spr.tif, temp_sum.tif, temp_aut.tif.

One way to load the suit.tif rasterstack from figshare is by simplying importing it with the raster package in R with index <- raster::stack("suit.tif").