CSW-4-Web

Dataset: Corine Land Cover 2018 (vector) - version 20, Jun. 2019

CORINE Land Cover (CLC) was specified to standardize data collection on land in Europe to support environmental policy development. The reference year of first CLC inventory was 1990 (CLC1990), and the first update created in 2000. Later the update cycle has become 6 years. The number of participating countries has increased over time − currently includes 33 European Environment Agency (EEA) member countries and six cooperating countries (EEA39) with a total area of over 5.8 Mkm2. Ortho-corrected high spatial resolution satellite images provide the geometrical and thematic basis for mapping. In-situ data (topographic maps, ortho-photos and ground survey data) are essential ancillary information. The project is coordinated by the EEA in the frame of the EU Copernicus programme and implemented by national teams under the management and quality control (QC) of the EEA. The basic technical parameters of CLC (i.e. 44 classes in nomenclature, 25 hectares minimum mapping unit (MMU) and 100 meters minimum mapping width) have not changed since the beginning, therefore the results of the different inventories are comparable. The layer of CORINE Land Cover Changes (CHA) is produced since the second CLC inventory (CLC2000). CHA is derived from satellite imagery by direct mapping of changes taken place between two consecutive inventories, based on image-to-image comparison. Change mapping applies a 5 ha MMU to pick up more details in CHA layer than in CLC status layer. Integration of national CLC and CHA data includes some harmonization along national borders. Two European validation studies have shown that the achieved thematic accuracy is above the specified minimum (85 %). Primary CLC and CHA data are in vector format with polygon topology. Derived products in raster format are also available. The seamless European CLC and CHA time series data (CLC1990, CLC2000, CLC2006, CLC2012, CLC2018 and related CHA data) are distributed in the standard European Coordinate Reference System defined by the European Terrestrial Reference System 1989 (ETRS89) datum and Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area (LAEA) projection (EPSG: 3035). Results of the CLC inventories can be downloaded from Copernicus Land site free of charge for all users. CLC data can contribute to a wide range of studies with European coverage, e.g.: ecosystem mapping, modelling the impacts of climate change, landscape fragmentation by roads, abandonment of farm land and major structural changes in agriculture, urban sprawl, water management.