Has EO found its customers? Results of GLC2000 Legend Workshop November 2000 JRC / Ispra

Has EO found its customers? Conclusions GLC2000 Legend Workshop Land cover information is required 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 range from few land cover classes (forest / non-forest) to large number of classes from few discrete classes to a continuous range of values global regional sub-regional local

Has EO found its customers? Objective of the GLC2000 project at global level:  to map the distribution and the extent of main land cover classes different information needs at global level- the legend should take this into account Data set should provide a baseline for assessment & 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 Conclusions GLC2000 Legend Workshop

Has EO found its customers? need to address the regional and sub-regional level for monitoring specific processes: deforestation, desertification,.. link GLC2000 data set to the national level where possible e.g. number of large less developed countries with outdated national databases where the GLC2000 could provide baseline information on land and vegetation cover information content of VGT data allows to go further than global level depending on specific regions and specific application network of regional partners ancillary regional data and knowledge not limit regional application by using a global legend GLC2000 aims also at regional and sub-regional level in order to address a broader range of applications Conclusions GLC2000 Legend Workshop legend should provide satisfying detail at the regional and sub- regional level

Has EO found its customers? Predefined legend linked to defined purpose & limited value for other applications forces the user to squeeze the vegetation types into a predefined scheme Questions raised: > how to achieve a homogenous classification of land cover at the global level which offers sufficient detail and link possibilities to the regional and sub-regional level? > few global land cover classes or many regional classes? > predefined legend or flexible classification system? Conclusions GLC2000 Legend Workshop

Has EO found its customers? 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 > big number of slightly different classes risk of overlap if not well defined (open forests - woodland, grassland - steppe) difficulty of handling and interpreting a large number of classes risk of incompatibility of classes when grouping at global level Conclusions GLC2000 Legend Workshop

Has EO found its customers? 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’? Conclusions GLC2000 Legend Workshop

Has EO found its customers? Decision for a flexible classification system instead of a fixed predefined legend partners use the FAO LCCS software for generating their regional classes and legend each land cover class is described by specifying a series of classifiers life form (trees, shrubs, herbaceous), cover,leaf type, phenology adding environmental attributes climate, altitude adding (optional) specific attributes crop type, species information no predefined class names each user would generate the regional classes and legend to the detail possible, using also ancillary data compatibility at higher level and the final legend > by grouping of selected classifiers Conclusions GLC2000 Legend Workshop

Has EO found its customers? LCCS principle

Has EO found its customers? Building different classes or legends by combining classifiers and attributes Building a legend with ‘forest’ > 40% tree cover - ( = FAO ‘dense forest’) Forest > 40% A3, (A10 or A12)

Has EO found its customers? Building different classes or legends by combining classifiers and attributes Building a legend with ‘vegetation cover with woody component’ Woody vegetation A3 or A4

Has EO found its customers? 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 final legend can be built at a later stage by grouping of significant classifiers and attributes (according to a specific purpose) Advantages improved possibilities to harmonize classifications between regions improved compatibility to existing data sets (>monitoring capabilities) contribution to standardizing land cover classification Conclusions GLC2000 Legend Workshop

Has EO found its customers? Conclusions GLC2000 Legend Workshop Pre-requisite: minimum set of common classifiers and attributes has to be used by the participants in order to be able to build a globally compatible legend FAO LCCS classifier thresholds to be accepted establish an ‘ discussion and monitoring forum’ where participants would report the classes and legends they are establishing

Has EO found its customers? based on SPOT VGT added ancillary data based SPOT VGT or ancillary data Example of LCCS appearance and on-screen I. Starting from 8 major land cover types (dichotomous phase) II. Hierarchical phase of pre- defined land cover classifiers

Has EO found its customers? based on SPOT VGT added ancillary data based SPOT VGT or ancillary data No further classifiers obligatory as ‘minimum’ (agricultural cropland) Minimum set of classifiers for GLC2000 global classes

Has EO found its customers? 1 based on SPOT VGT added ancillary data based SPOT VGT or ancillary data

Has EO found its customers? 2 based on SPOT VGT added ancillary data based SPOT VGT or ancillary data

Has EO found its customers? based on SPOT VGT added ancillary data based SPOT VGT or ancillary data No further classifiers obligatory as ‘minimum’

Has EO found its customers? based on SPOT VGT added ancillary data based SPOT VGT or ancillary data

Has EO found its customers? based on SPOT VGT added ancillary data based SPOT VGT or ancillary data No further classifiers obligatory as ‘minimum’ (more information could be derived from ancillary layers)

Has EO found its customers? Surface aspect Consolidated Bare rock Hardpan Unconsolidated Bare Soil Loose and shifting sand based on SPOT VGT added ancillary data based SPOT VGT or ancillary data

Has EO found its customers? No further classifiers obligatory as ‘minimum’ (more information could be derived from ancillary layers) based on SPOT VGT added ancillary data based SPOT VGT or ancillary data

Has EO found its customers? Physical Status Water Snow Ice based on SPOT VGT added ancillary data based SPOT VGT or ancillary data

Has EO found its customers? LCCS output