Human activities in coastal landscapes also exert both direct and indirect pressures on blue carbon (McLeod et al., 2011). Rogers et al. (2019) accounted for this pressure using land-use mapping, with the premise being that natural landscapes are more compatible with storage, preservation, and generation of blue carbon, whilst intensive land-use activities are less compatible. They proposed that this approach partly accounts for socio-economic factors that influence blue carbon. In this study, 2017 land-use mapping was reclassified based on perceived present-day compatibility with blue carbon to generate a blue carbon compatibility (BCC) raster dataset.

McLeod, E., Chmura, G.L., Bouillon, S., Salm, R., Björk, M., Duarte, C.M., Lovelock, C.E., Schlesinger, W.H., and Silliman, B.R. (2011). A blueprint for blue carbon: toward an improved understanding of the role of vegetated coastal habitats in sequestering CO2. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 9, 552-560.

Rogers, K., Macreadie, P.I., Kelleway, J.J., and Saintilan, N. (2019b). Blue carbon in coastal landscapes: a spatial framework for assessment of stocks and additionality. Sustainability Science 14, 453-467.