Has EO found its customers? 1 Space Applications Institute Directorate General Joint Research Centre European Commission Ispra (VA), Italy Legend vs. classification scheme, the challenge for GLC 2000 H.-J. Stibig

Has EO found its customers? GLC2000 Workshop: Legend Main topics ? legend for the GLC2000 product ? approach to be chosen for land cover classification how do we classify global land cover? which land cover classes should be included? what ‘legend’ do we finally need? Use of the data set should not be restricted to global level: ? how to achieve a homogenous classification of land cover at the global level ? providing relevant information as far as possible also for the regional and the national level

Has EO found its customers? GLC2000 Workshop: Legend land cover information is required e.g. for assessment of land resources forest inventories hydrological models vegetation - atmosphere interaction models a) for different purposesb) at different geographical (management and planning )levels thematic information needs can range from few land cover classes (forest / non-forest) to large number of classes continuous range of values global regional sub-regional local

Has EO found its customers? GLC2000 Workshop: Legend Basic objective of GLC2000 project at global level ? to map the distribution and the extent of main land cover classes ? different information needs at global level Data set should provide a baseline for assessment of land resources for monitoring land cover change in a global context input for global climate modeling reference data for the implementation of international conventions uniform and consistent data set comparable across regions and countries defined reference year: 2000 compatibility to IGPB classes

Has EO found its customers? GLC2000 Workshop: Legend aiming at a broader range of applications: GLC2000 should ? provide land cover information to the best detail possible ? allow to derive regional land cover classifications address the regional and sub-regional level e.g. monitor processes: deforestation, desertification,.. link to the national level where possible number of large less, developed countries with outdated national databases where the GLC2000 could provide baseline information on land and vegetation cover

Has EO found its customers? GLC2000 Workshop: Legend Example: regional needs for Africa

Has EO found its customers? Example: needs for arid sub-region (Africa )

Has EO found its customers? GLC2000 Workshop: Legend Example: (Sub-)Regional Needs Siberia

Has EO found its customers? GLC2000 Workshop: Legend different information impact on the definition of requirementsa legend Predefined legend linked to defined purpose & limited value for other applications forces the user to squeeze the vegetation types into a predefined scheme

Has EO found its customers? GLC2000 Workshop: Legend Limited number of broad global land cover classes: limit possibilities of describing vegetation at regional level limit the range of possible applications Large number of detailed regional land cover classes: globally -> number of slightly different classes risk of overlap if not well defined (open forests vs. woodland, grassland vs. steppe) difficulty of handling and interpreting a large number of classes risk of incompatibility of classes when grouping at global level

Has EO found its customers? GLC2000 Workshop: Legend Problem of class names a ) different regional use of class names b ) different understanding in how to interpret specific classes ? incompatibility between regions or data sets ‘forest’ (IGBP): > 60% of tree cover many of the Siberian forests with tree cover less than 60% would not be called ‘forest’ - does not correspond to regional understanding of forest ‘forest’ (FAO): > 10% of tree cover what is the information content of the class finally? South American ‘Pampas’ to ‘Steppe, Savannah or Grassland’?

Has EO found its customers? GLC2000 Workshop: Legend Proposed : Flexible classification system instead of a fixed legend (FAO LCCS) land cover types are described by adding up a series of land cover classifiers and attributes no predefined class names and legend compatibility at higher level and the final legend are achieved by grouping according to a selection of these classifiers and attributes

Has EO found its customers? GLC2000 Workshop: Legend

Has EO found its customers? GLC2000 Workshop: Legend Building a legend with ‘forest’ > 40% tree cover - ( = FAO ‘dense forest’) Forest > 40%

Has EO found its customers? GLC2000 Workshop: Legend Building a legend with ‘vegetation cover with woody component’ Woody vegetation

Has EO found its customers? GLC2000 Workshop: Legend Building a legend with class ‘impact of agriculture’ Agricultural Impact

Has EO found its customers? GLC2000 Workshop: Legend classification of land cover can be done at different geographical level at different detail, depending on the information available: regional subclasses adding regional species information to a global forest class legend can be formed by grouping of significant classifiers and attributes according to a specific purpose Prerequisite minimum set of common classifiers and attributes to be present in order to build the global classes Advantages improved possibilities to harmonize classifications between regions improved compatibility to existing data sets (->monitoring capabilities) contribution to standardizing land cover classification

Has EO found its customers? GLC2000 Workshop: Legend Implications for mapping method Remote sensing (SPOT VEGETATION): spectral information: signatures of land cover classes temporal information: seasonal variation of spectral signatures Limitations in detail of land cover classification parameters not assessable coarse resolution ? foresee integration of ancillary information (as a standard procedure ?) Step 1: classification (digital) of a single date or multi-temporal data set Step 2: adding ancillary information digital data layers manually defined ROI

Has EO found its customers? GLC2000 Workshop: Legend

Has EO found its customers? GLC2000 Workshop: Legend Stratification Layer: Eco-floristic zone

Has EO found its customers? T GLC2000 Workshop: Legend GLC2000 Workshop: Legend GLC2000 Workshop: Legend ROIs- manual stratification

Has EO found its customers? GLC2000 Workshop: Legend ?do we need to define a ‘Minimum Legend’ for the global level? if yes: which land cover classes? Points for discussion ?feedback to the approach of a flexible classification system ! based on classifiers ! allowing regional flexibility in class definition

Has EO found its customers? GLC2000 Workshop LCCS specific / technical: need to specify a minimal set of classifiers for building up a global legend? need to define additional rules to avoid ambiguous definitions? need to require certain attribute information, e.g. such as ‘climate’? Your feedback on the LCCS tool? Do LCCS definitions meet the regional needs for land cover classification? are the classifiers of LCCS in a format in order to allow operational re- grouping? training course on LCCS required

Has EO found its customers? GLC2000 Workshop Ancillary data how to integrate ancillary information in the classification procedure? need to specify as standard what kind of ancillary information to be used : classifications on e.g. ecofloristic zones, soils… data sets of geo-physical parameters Methods of mapping need to define the mapping methodology