Mapping the Continuum of Humanity's Footprint on Land

The past three decades have seen a proliferation in the breadth of data documenting the natural world around us. In concert with this, the new field of cumulative human-pressure mapping has emerged to integrate these data forms and allow practitioners in different disciplines to utilize and apply concepts from others. These mapping efforts provide a new view of the terrestrial biosphere and humanity's role in shaping its patterns and processes. Here, we present an overview of this field and its major advances by exploring how these maps have found diverse uses in environmental management and in informing international policy and debate around how best to achieve sustainability, reach biodiversity conservation goals, and avert dangerous climate change. The field is still in its infancy, and we conclude with our views of what could be the next set of interdisciplinary advances for mapping human pressure to inform the global environmental agenda.