The Full Picture

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IGOL are widely reflected in the related GEO task DA-

07-02 on global land cover.

The new European Space Agency (ESA) funded

Globcover product will be based on 2005/06 Envisat Meris

data and will provide the highest resolution (300m),

consistent global land cover map, fully compliant with

international standards for land cover characterization

(UN Land Cover Classification System) and validation

(CEOS best practices).

Additional progress can be

reported for national and regional high-resolution land

cover mapping programmes, including the Corine/GMES

service, US National Land Cover Database, and new prod-

ucts evolving in countries such as Canada and China, as

well as those in the UN Global Land Cover Network.

High-resolution land cover change dataset

Work is ongoing toward the development of a high-reso-

lution (Landsat-type) land cover change dataset. NASA

and the US Geological Survey have been making progress

in acquiring high-resolution imagery for the Mid-decadal

Global Land Survey that will provide consistent,

preprocessed, global, free-of-charge Landsat data for 2005,

GEO related achievements in 2007

The Global Observation of Forest and Land Cover Dynamics (GOFC-

GOLD) is a coordinated international effort to ensure a continuous

programme of space-based and in situ forest and other land cover obser-

vations, in order to better understand global change, to support

international assessments and environmental treaties, and to contribute

to natural resources management. The GOFC-GOLD community, with

GEO involvement, was able to achieve significant progress in task DA-

07-02 in 2007.

In 2004, the Integrated Global Observing Strategy (IGOS) part-

nership started to develop an additional theme covering all land

requirements outside of those covered by the established themes.

The new theme is known as Integrated Global Observations of the

Land (IGOL) and defines detailed observation requirements for

different areas, including agriculture, forestry, land degradation,

ecosystem goods and services, biodiversity and conservation, human

health, water resource management, disasters, energy, urbanization

and climate change. The IGOL document has been compiled and

presented to the IGOS Partnership (IGOS-P) plenary in 2007 as the

first comprehensive and integrated observation strategy for the land

domain. The process of integrating the IGOL strategies into GEO

implementation has been initiated. The land cover requirements of

Region covered

Australia

Canada

Different countries

worldwide

European Union

Great Britain

New Zealand

South Africa

United States

Mapping/monitoring programme

National Carbon Accounting System -

Land Cover Change Project (LCCP)

Earth Observation for Sustainable

Development of Forests (EOSD)

United Nations Global Land Cover

Network (GLCN)

Coordination of Information on the

Environment (CORINE)

Land Cover Map of Great Britain

New Zealand Land Cover Database

South African National Land Cover

Database

National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD)

Objective

To monitor land cover change for the past 30 years

for integrated and comprehensive greenhouse gas

emissions reporting for land based emissions and

to underpin policies for greenhouse and natural

resource management

To produce a land cover map of the forested area

of Canada for monitoring of Canada’s forests

(internal monitoring and reporting, participation in

international programmes)

Improve the availability of reliable and

standardized information on land cover and its

changes at the global level and for a large user

community

To provide an inventory of the Earth surface

features for managing the environment; to compile

consistent data of the land cover for Europe in

order to determine EU’s environment policy,

assess the effects of this policy and incorporate

the environment dimension into other policies

To provide a census of the countryside of the UK,

in the form of digital maps and databases, plus a

range of derived products, for use in a

geographical information system (GIS) and

statistical packages

To investigate the feasibility of using satellite

imagery for forest resource mapping and

monitoring within New Zealand

To provide strategic, national-coverage land-cover

information, on an operationally achievable,

repeatable basis for general modelling, natural

resource assessment, statistical and data

integration purposes

To generate a consistent, seamless, and accurate

land cover data set for the conterminous United

States

Data products

Land cover change 1972-2000 based on

Landsat: maps of forest cover at each time

slice; maps of land cover change between

each pair of consecutive time slices

Land-cover map of forested areas from

Landsat data for 2000 and eventually for

1990 (base year for Kyoto reporting), updates

intended for 2007 and 2012

More than 15 countries fully mapped using

Landsat data (i.e. Africover, Asiacover).

Translation and harmonization of existing

databases. Continuing effort

Land cover/use dataset and land change

based on 1990 and 2000 Landsat data.

Continuation planned under Global

Environment and Security (GMES)

Land cover and land use and change for 1990

and 2000 using Landsat data

Land cover and land use and change for

1996/97 (based on SPOT) and 2001/02

(based on Landsat)

Land-cover database 1994/95 and 2000

based on Landsat data including change

assessment

Land cover/use maps from 1992 and 2001

Landsat data interpretations and independent

per-pixel estimates of imperviousness and

tree canopy. Continuation planned

Examples of national and regional land cover/use mapping and monitoring programmes building upon Landsat-type observations

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