European land cover mapping

1
European land cover mapping

• Stefan Kleeschulte
• European Topic Centre on Terrestrial Environment

2
Corine Land Cover (CLC)

• Scale 1100.000, seamless vector database
• 44 classes in 3 hierarchical levels
• 25 ha Minimum Mapping Unit (MMU)
• 5 ha MMU for land cover changes
• /- 30 countries
• Extension to Norway, Switzerland, Turkey Iceland

3
Comparison Europe U.S.

• Europe
• 3.6 Mio km2

• United States (Lower 48)
• 7.8 Mio km2

Source CLC2000
Source NLCD Land Cover Statistics
4
Methodology
Ortho-rectified satellite image database (JRC)
Visual image interpretation (national teams)
Verification qualitative (ETC/TE)
Final vector database (national team)
European Data integration vector raster
(ETC/TE)
Validation quantitative (ETC/TE)
5
History

• CLC1990
• Process from 1985 to 1995
• 10-year process
• Growing process
• No common data policy

• CLC2000
• Coordinated approach
• Snapshot (2000 /- 1 year)
• 29 countries
• Agreed data policy for image and mapping data
• Output
• CLC2000
• CLC changes
• CLC90 corrected

6
Validation of European CLC data

• Need for an independent database
• LUCAS Land Use land Cover Area Sampling
• Statistical sampling grid
• Similar timeframe
• 10.000 points over Europe (18 countries)
• Field survey of land use and land cover
• Field photographs
• Re-interpretation of field photographs

7
Validation results
Display of LUCAS points on IMAGE2000 Interpreta
tion of point from satellite image and field
photographs Creation of error matrix
Overall accuracy 87.0 0.8
8
CLC - a success story

• Number of downloads from EEA web site
• Applications
• Value of downstream applications

9
Corine land cover downloads from
http//dataservice.eea.eu.int
CLC2000
10
Use of Corine Land Cover Breakdown per economic
sector
Investment cost CLC2000 13 Meuro Estimated
revenues generated by underpinning downstream
activities using CLC 250 Meuro Based on
analysis of 500 activities out of 5658
registered users
11
IMAGE2000 User statistics
User category Number of registered users
Environment 918
Education 664
Agriculture 578
Demonstration 246
Forestry 460
Tourism 321
Telecommunications 117
Health 133
Total registered users 2477
Total of downloads 15027
Source JRC, 2006 (Summer 2005 April 2006)
12
Extract from User Application Database
Land Cover impact on flood modelling.
Habitat suitability for some parasite species of economical interest
Agro-Environmental Research and Rural Development by EC DG-Agriculture
Satellite-based estimates of drought impact
Testing a ICZM Indicator set
Wind Energy Assessment
Effects of forest characteristics on the abundance of pendulous lichens in Northern Finland
Post-socialist suburbanization in Tallinn Region
Hydrological assessment and modelling of the river Fani, Albania
Fire risk management
Predicting Impacts on Natural Ecotones
Enhance Flight Simulator environment
3D - Modelling
Biodiversity of the rivers Rhine and Meuse
Agriculture, Land use in mountain areas

13
State outlook of Europes Environment
14
Example Green urban areas (based on IMAGE2000)
free access
Source EEA (2006)
15
Example Population density (based on CLC and
Eurostat)
free access
Source EEA, JRC (2005)
16
Issues
Impacts of land use planning on flooding
The 2002 Millennium floodaffected 4.2 million
people
Between 19802000 urban land augmented 20 while
population increased only 6
17
Nature protection and halting loss of
biodiversity (2010 target)
Issues
Points of possible traffic conflict 2000 (Estonia)
Planning green corridors 2010 (Estonia)
18
Land cover change accounts from maps to
statistics
Land cover 1990 2000 and land cover change are
first converted to a grid (below, 3x3 km)
LCF1 Urban land management LCF2 Urban residential
sprawl LCF3 Sprawl of economic sites and
infrastructures LCF4 Agriculture internal
conversions LCF5 Conversion from other land cover
to agriculture LCF6 Withdrawal of farming
LCF7 Forests creation and management LCF8 Water
bodies creation and management LCF9 Changes due
to natural multiple causes
Individual changes are grouped by land cover
flows that describe processes
19
CLC2006 update

• Highly requested by European Commission and EEA
  Member States
• High interest in land cover changes
• More frequent updates (lt 10 years)
• Improved data content (e.g. urban)
• Integration into GMES
• Reliable, up-to-date and accessible information
  on the environment for Europe
• GMES Fast Track Service on Land (delivery 2008)
• CLC2006 update
• 2 high-resolution layers

20
Proposed funding blocks
In-situ data CLC2006 interpretation Validation
High resolution layers
Satellite images
Total estimate 14 Meuro
21
Concept of GMES services on land monitoring based
on EU and National user requirements
Earth Observation
In situ monitoring
Core land cover data service
Public funding
Downstream services
Industry services
22
GMES FTS Land first set of core land cover data
products
CLC 2006
Built-up area / sealing
CLC Changes
23
Products to deliver in 2008

• Ortho-rectified satellite images for the
  reference year 2006 (/- 1 year)
• European mosaic based on ortho-rectified
  satellite imagery (IMAGE2006)
• Corine land cover changes 2000-2006
• Corine land cover map 2006 (CLC2006)
• High resolution built-up areas including degree
  of soil sealing 2006
• High resolution forest mask 2006.

24
Agreed boundary conditions during preparatory
work 2005-2006
Snap shot covering EU MS and neighbouring countries
Continuity of Corine land cover guaranteed
Core land cover data available within 1.5 year after the satellite data acquisition
Updates at least every 5 years
Coordination of European with national, regional, local monitoring activities
Building on existing land cover and land use experience and monitoring activities.
Co-ownership of the products guaranteed
Open access and free dissemination data policy maintained
25
Thank you for your interest
In case of questions stefan.kleeschulte_at_uab.es