Advances in data availability, Earth observation technologies, and geospatial sciences have transformed our ability to map Global Surface Water Extents (GSWE). However, traditional GSWE mapping has been limited to static estimates, with more recent efforts focusing on annual averages and temporal attributes like frequency and occurrence of long-term variations. We harnessed remotely sensed Sentinel-2 based near real-time Dynamic World land cover product to produce the first public, routinely available 10-meter resolution global surface water datasets. Our key contribution is an Open Science operational framework to rapidly extract the latest available Dynamic World products every 2-5 days, run geospatial analytics, and create actionable water information for educators, researchers, and stakeholders at any scale of practical interest.

This dataset has been developed by the Hydrology & Hydroinformatics Innovation Lab at the University of Texas at Arlington, United States.

This layer displays a global map of land use/land cover (LULC) derived from ESA Sentinel-2 imagery at 10m resolution. Each year is generated with Impact Observatory’s deep learning AI land classification model, trained using billions of human-labeled image pixels from the National Geographic Society. The global maps are produced by applying this model to the Sentinel-2 Level-2A image collection on Microsoft’s Planetary Computer, processing over 400,000 Earth observations per year.The algorithm generates LULC predictions for nine classes, described in detail below. The year 2017 has a land cover class assigned for every pixel, but its class is based upon fewer images than the other years. The years 2018-2023 are based upon a more complete set of imagery. For this reason, the year 2017 may have less accurate land cover class assignments than the years 2018-2023.Variable mapped: Land use/land cover in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023Source Data Coordinate System: Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) WGS84Service Coordinate System: Web Mercator Auxiliary Sphere WGS84 (EPSG:3857)Extent: GlobalSource imagery: Sentinel-2 L2ACell Size: 10-metersType: ThematicAttribution: Esri, Impact ObservatoryWhat can you do with this layer?Global land use/land cover maps provide information on conservation planning, food security, and hydrologic modeling, among other things. This dataset can be used to visualize land use/land cover anywhere on Earth. This layer can also be used in analyses that require land use/land cover input. For example, the Zonal toolset allows a user to understand the composition of a specified area by reporting the total estimates for each of the classes. NOTE: Land use focus does not provide the spatial detail of a land cover map. As such, for the built area classification, yards, parks, and groves will appear as built area rather than trees or rangeland classes.Class definitionsValueNameDescription1WaterAreas where water was predominantly present throughout the year; may not cover areas with sporadic or ephemeral water; contains little to no sparse vegetation, no rock outcrop nor built up features like docks; examples: rivers, ponds, lakes, oceans, flooded salt plains.2TreesAny significant clustering of tall (~15 feet or higher) dense vegetation, typically with a closed or dense canopy; examples: wooded vegetation, clusters of dense tall vegetation within savannas, plantations, swamp or mangroves (dense/tall vegetation with ephemeral water or canopy too thick to detect water underneath).4Flooded vegetationAreas of any type of vegetation with obvious intermixing of water throughout a majority of the year; seasonally flooded area that is a mix of grass/shrub/trees/bare ground; examples: flooded mangroves, emergent vegetation, rice paddies and other heavily irrigated and inundated agriculture.5CropsHuman planted/plotted cereals, grasses, and crops not at tree height; examples: corn, wheat, soy, fallow plots of structured land.7Built AreaHuman made structures; major road and rail networks; large homogenous impervious surfaces including parking structures, office buildings and residential housing; examples: houses, dense villages / towns / cities, paved roads, asphalt.8Bare groundAreas of rock or soil with very sparse to no vegetation for the entire year; large areas of sand and deserts with no to little vegetation; examples: exposed rock or soil, desert and sand dunes, dry salt flats/pans, dried lake beds, mines.9Snow/IceLarge homogenous areas of permanent snow or ice, typically only in mountain areas or highest latitudes; examples: glaciers, permanent snowpack, snow fields.10CloudsNo land cover information due to persistent cloud cover.11RangelandOpen areas covered in homogenous grasses with little to no taller vegetation; wild cereals and grasses with no obvious human plotting (i.e., not a plotted field); examples: natural meadows and fields with sparse to no tree cover, open savanna with few to no trees, parks/golf courses/lawns, pastures. Mix of small clusters of plants or single plants dispersed on a landscape that shows exposed soil or rock; scrub-filled clearings within dense forests that are clearly not taller than trees; examples: moderate to sparse cover of bushes, shrubs and tufts of grass, savannas with very sparse grasses, trees or other plants.Classification ProcessThese maps include Version 003 of the global Sentinel-2 land use/land cover data product. It is produced by a deep learning model trained using over five billion hand-labeled Sentinel-2 pixels, sampled from over 20,000 sites distributed across all major biomes of the world.The underlying deep learning model uses 6-bands of Sentinel-2 L2A surface reflectance data: visible blue, green, red, near infrared, and two shortwave infrared bands. To create the final map, the model is run on multiple dates of imagery throughout the year, and the outputs are composited into a final representative map for each year.The input Sentinel-2 L2A data was accessed via Microsoft’s Planetary Computer and scaled using Microsoft Azure Batch.CitationKarra, Kontgis, et al. “Global land use/land cover with Sentinel-2 and deep learning.” IGARSS 2021-2021 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium. IEEE, 2021.AcknowledgementsTraining data for this project makes use of the National Geographic Society Dynamic World training dataset, produced for the Dynamic World Project by National Geographic Society in partnership with Google and the World Resources Institute.

INTRODUCTION

This document outlines the creation of a global inventory of reference samples and Earth Observation (EO) / gridded datasets for the Global Pasture Watch (GPW) initiative. This inventory supports the training and validation of machine-learning models for GPW grassland mapping. This documentation outlines methodology, data sources, workflow, and results.

Keywords: Grassland, Land Use, Land Cover, Gridded Datasets, Harmonization

OBJECTIVES

• Create a global inventory of existing reference samples for land use and land cover (LULC);

• Compile global EO / gridded datasets that capture LULC classes and harmonize them to match the GPW classes;

• Develop automated scripts for data harmonization and integration.

DATA COLLECTION

Datasets incorporated:

Total: 102,355,642 samples

WORKFLOW

Harmonization Process

We harmonized global reference samples and EO/gridded datasets to align with GPW classes, optimizing their integration into the GPW machine-learning workflow.

We considered reference samples derived by visual interpretation with spatial support of at least 30 m (Landsat and Sentinel), that could represent LULC classes for a point or region.

Each dataset was processed using automated Python scripts to download vector files and convert the original LULC classes into the following GPW classes:

0. Other land cover

1. Natural and Semi-natural grassland

2. Cultivated grassland

3. Crops and other related agricultural practices

We empirically assigned a weight to each sample based on the original dataset's class description, reflecting the level of mixture within the class. The weights range from 1 (Low) to 3 (High), with higher weights indicating greater mixture. Samples with low mixture levels are more accurate and effective for differentiating typologies and for validation purposes.

The harmonized dataset includes these columns:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The development of this global inventory of reference samples and EO/gridded datasets relied on valuable contributions from various sources. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the creators and maintainers of all datasets used in this project.

REFERENCES

• Brown, C.F., Brumby, S.P., Guzder-Williams, B. et al. Dynamic World, Near real-time global 10 m land use land cover mapping. Sci Data 9, 251 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01307-4Van Tricht, K. et al. Worldcereal: a dynamic open-source system for global-scale, seasonal, and reproducible crop and irrigation mapping. Earth Syst. Sci. Data 15, 5491–5515, 10.5194/essd-15-5491-2023 (2023)

• Buchhorn, M.; Smets, B.; Bertels, L.; De Roo, B.; Lesiv, M.; Tsendbazar, N.E., Linlin, L., Tarko, A. (2020): Copernicus Global Land Service: Land Cover 100m: Version 3 Globe 2015-2019: Product User Manual; Zenodo, Geneve, Switzerland, September 2020; doi: 10.5281/zenodo.3938963

• d’Andrimont, R. et al. Harmonised lucas in-situ land cover and use database for field surveys from 2006 to 2018 in the european union. Sci. data 7, 352, 10.1038/s41597-019-0340-y (2020)

• Fritz, S. et al. Geo-Wiki: An online platform for improving global land cover, Environmental Modelling & Software, 31, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2011.11.015 (2012)

• Fritz, S., See, L., Perger, C. et al. A global dataset of crowdsourced land cover and land use reference data. Sci Data 4, 170075 https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.75 (2017)

• Schneider, M., Schelte, T., Schmitz, F. & Körner, M. Eurocrops: The largest harmonized open crop dataset across the european union. Sci. Data 10, 612, 10.1038/s41597-023-02517-0 (2023)

• Souza, C. M. et al. Reconstructing Three Decades of Land Use and Land Cover Changes in Brazilian Biomes with Landsat Archive and Earth Engine. Remote. Sens. 12, 2735, 10.3390/rs12172735 (2020)

• Stanimirova, R. et al. A global land cover training dataset from 1984 to 2020. Sci. Data 10, 879 (2023)

• Stehman, S. V., Pengra, B. W., Horton, J. A. & Wellington, D. F. Validation of the us geological survey’s land change monitoring, assessment and projection (lcmap) collection 1.0 annual land cover products 1985–2017. Remot Sensing environment 265, 112646, 10.1016/j.rse.2021.112646 (2021).

• Tsendbazar, N. et al. Product validation report (d12-pvr) v 1.1 (2021).

• Tseng, G., Zvonkov, I., Nakalembe, C. L., & Kerner, H. (2021). CropHarvest: A global dataset for crop-type classification. In Thirty-fifth Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems Datasets and Benchmarks Track.

This dataset contains preprocessed Sentinel-2 imagery and corresponding Dynamic World land-cover labels for six wetland areas in the Netherlands. It was created to support land-cover classification and segmentation tasks in ecologically dynamic floodplain environments. The data covers the period January 2017 to November 2024 and includes only scenes with less than 5% cloud cover.

Sentinel-2 imagery was retrieved using the Google Earth Engine (GEE) API from the COPERNICUS/S2 SR HARMONIZED collection, which provides Harmonized Level-2A data at 10 m spatial resolution. From the 26 available bands, 9 were selected based on their relevance for wetland delineation: RGB, Red Edge 1–3, Near-Infrared (NIR), and Shortwave Infrared (SWIR 1–2). The imagery was tiled into 256×256 pixel patches and filtered for quality (e.g., excluding patches with >10% black pixels).

Dynamic World land-cover labels (Brown et al., 2022) were used to generate pixel-wise semantic segmentation masks by selecting the most probable class (out of 9 land-cover types) for each pixel. The resulting masks are single-band images where pixel values 0–8 represent land-cover classes as follows:

0: Water 1: Trees 2: Grass 3: Flooded Vegetation 4: Crops 5: Shrub & Scrub 6: Built 7: Bare 8: Snow & Ice

The dataset includes the following splits:

Training set: Gelderse Poort, Oostvaardersplassen, Loosdrechtse Plassen, Land van Saeftinghe (1,701 images)

Validation set: Lauwersmeer (948 images)

Test set: Biesbosch (1,140 images)

This resource enables benchmarking of supervised and self-supervised learning methods for wetland classification in medium-resolution optical satellite data.

Reference:Brown, C.F., Brumby, S.P., Guzder-Williams, B., Birch, T., Hyde, S.B., Mazzariello, J., Czerwinski, W., Pasquarella, V.J., Haertel, R., Ilyushchenko, S., Schwehr, K., Weisse, M., Stolle, F., Hanson, C., Guinan, O., Moore, R., & Tait, A.M. (2022). Dynamic World, Near real-time global 10 m land use land cover mapping. Scientific Data, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01307-4

Using 335,709 Landsat images on the Google Earth Engine, we built the first Landsat-derived annual land cover product of China (CLCD) from 1985 to 2019. We collected the training samples by combining stable samples extracted from China's Land-Use/Cover Datasets (CLUD), and visually-interpreted samples from satellite time-series data, Google Earth and Google Map. Several temporal metrics were constructed via all available Landsat data and fed to the random forest classifier to obtain classification results. A post-processing method incorporating spatial-temporal filtering and logical reasoning was further proposed to improve the spatial-temporal consistency of CLCD.

"*_albert.tif" are projected files via a proj4 string "+proj=aea +lat_1=25 +lat_2=47 +lat_0=0 +lon_0=105 +x_0=0 +y_0=0 +datum=WGS84 +units=m +no_defs".

CLCD in 2023 is now available.

1. Given that the USGS no longer maintains the Landsat Collection 1 data, we are now using the Collection 2 SR data to update the CLCD.

2. All files in this version have been exported as Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF for more efficient processing on the cloud. Please check here for more details.

3. Internal overviews and color tables are built into each file to speed up software loading and rendering.

Dynamic World Private Limited Company Export Import Records. Follow the Eximpedia platform for HS code, importer-exporter records, and customs shipment details.

The Global Land Cover Characterization Project was established to meet science data requirements identified by the International Geosphere and Biosphere Programme (IGBP), and the U. S. Global Change Research Program. The overall goal is to produce flexible large-area land cover databases to meet evolving requirements of the earth science research community.

The project was implemented by the United States Geological Survey/EROS Data Center (EDC), the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), and the Joint Research (JRC) of European Commission. This effort is part of the National Aeronautic's and Space Administration (NASA) Earth Observing System Pathfinder Program.

Funding for the project was provided by the USGS, NASA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Forest Service (USFS) , and the United Nations Environment Programme.

The data base has been adopted by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme Data and Information System office (IGBP-DIS) to fill its requirement for a global 1-km land cover data set.

[Summary provided by the USGS.]

This layer displays change in pixels of the Sentinel-2 10m Land Use/Land Cover product developed by Esri, Impact Observatory, and Microsoft. Available years to compare with 2021 are 2018, 2019 and 2020.By default, the layer shows all comparisons together, in effect showing what changed 2018-2021. But the layer may be changed to show one of three specific pairs of years, 2018-2021, 2019-2021, or 2020-2021.Showing just one pair of years in ArcGIS Online Map ViewerTo show just one pair of years in ArcGIS Online Map viewer, create a filter.1. Click the filter button.2. Next, click add expression.3. In the expression dialogue, specify a pair of years with the ProductName attribute. Use the following example in your expression dialogue to show only places that changed between 2020 and 2021:ProductNameis2020-2021By default, places that do not change appear as a transparent symbol in ArcGIS Pro. But in ArcGIS Online Map Viewer, a transparent symbol may need to be set for these places after a filter is chosen. To do this:4. Click the styles button.5. Under unique values click style options.6. Click the symbol next to No Change at the bottom of the legend.7. Click the slider next to "enable fill" to turn the symbol off.Showing just one pair of years in ArcGIS ProTo show just one pair of years in ArcGIS Pro, choose one of the layer's processing templates to single out a particular pair of years. The processing template applies a definition query that works in ArcGIS Pro.1. To choose a processing template, right click the layer in the table of contents for ArcGIS Pro and choose properties.2. In the dialogue that comes up, choose the tab that says processing templates.3. On the right where it says processing template, choose the pair of years you would like to display.The processing template will stay applied for any analysis you may want to perform as well.How the change layer was created, combining LULC classes from two yearsImpact Observatory, Esri, and Microsoft used artificial intelligence to classify the world in 10 Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) classes for the years 2017-2021. Mosaics serve the following sets of change rasters in a single global layer:Change between 2018 and 2021Change between 2019 and 2021Change between 2020 and 2021To make this change layer, Esri used an arithmetic operation combining the cells from a source year and 2021 to make a change index value. ((from year * 16) + to year) In the example of the change between 2020 and 2021, the from year (2020) was multiplied by 16, then added to the to year (2021). Then the combined number is served as an index in an 8 bit unsigned mosaic with an attribute table which describes what changed or did not change in that timeframe.Variable mapped: Change in land cover between 2018, 2019, or 2020 and 2021Data Projection: Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM)Mosaic Projection: WGS84Extent: GlobalSource imagery: Sentinel-2Cell Size: 10m (0.00008983152098239751 degrees)Type: ThematicSource: Esri Inc.Publication date: January 2022What can you do with this layer?Global LULC maps provide information on conservation planning, food security, and hydrologic modeling, among other things. This dataset can be used to visualize land cover anywhere on Earth. This layer can also be used in analyses that require land cover input. For example, the Zonal Statistics tools allow a user to understand the composition of a specified area by reporting the total estimates for each of the classes.Land Cover processingThis map was produced by a deep learning model trained using over 5 billion hand-labeled Sentinel-2 pixels, sampled from over 20,000 sites distributed across all major biomes of the world. The underlying deep learning model uses 6 bands of Sentinel-2 surface reflectance data: visible blue, green, red, near infrared, and two shortwave infrared bands. To create the final map, the model is run on multiple dates of imagery throughout the year, and the outputs are composited into a final representative map.Processing platformSentinel-2 L2A/B data was accessed via Microsoft’s Planetary Computer and scaled using Microsoft Azure Batch.Class definitions1. WaterAreas where water was predominantly present throughout the year; may not cover areas with sporadic or ephemeral water; contains little to no sparse vegetation, no rock outcrop nor built up features like docks; examples: rivers, ponds, lakes, oceans, flooded salt plains.2. TreesAny significant clustering of tall (~15-m or higher) dense vegetation, typically with a closed or dense canopy; examples: wooded vegetation, clusters of dense tall vegetation within savannas, plantations, swamp or mangroves (dense/tall vegetation with ephemeral water or canopy too thick to detect water underneath).4. Flooded vegetationAreas of any type of vegetation with obvious intermixing of water throughout a majority of the year; seasonally flooded area that is a mix of grass/shrub/trees/bare ground; examples: flooded mangroves, emergent vegetation, rice paddies and other heavily irrigated and inundated agriculture.5. CropsHuman planted/plotted cereals, grasses, and crops not at tree height; examples: corn, wheat, soy, fallow plots of structured land.7. Built AreaHuman made structures; major road and rail networks; large homogenous impervious surfaces including parking structures, office buildings and residential housing; examples: houses, dense villages / towns / cities, paved roads, asphalt.8. Bare groundAreas of rock or soil with very sparse to no vegetation for the entire year; large areas of sand and deserts with no to little vegetation; examples: exposed rock or soil, desert and sand dunes, dry salt flats/pans, dried lake beds, mines.9. Snow/IceLarge homogenous areas of permanent snow or ice, typically only in mountain areas or highest latitudes; examples: glaciers, permanent snowpack, snow fields. 10. CloudsNo land cover information due to persistent cloud cover.11. RangelandOpen areas covered in homogenous grasses with little to no taller vegetation; wild cereals and grasses with no obvious human plotting (i.e., not a plotted field); examples: natural meadows and fields with sparse to no tree cover, open savanna with few to no trees, parks/golf courses/lawns, pastures. Mix of small clusters of plants or single plants dispersed on a landscape that shows exposed soil or rock; scrub-filled clearings within dense forests that are clearly not taller than trees; examples: moderate to sparse cover of bushes, shrubs and tufts of grass, savannas with very sparse grasses, trees or other plants.CitationKarra, Kontgis, et al. “Global land use/land cover with Sentinel-2 and deep learning.” IGARSS 2021-2021 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium. IEEE, 2021.AcknowledgementsTraining data for this project makes use of the National Geographic Society Dynamic World training dataset, produced for the Dynamic World Project by National Geographic Society in partnership with Google and the World Resources Institute.For questions please email environment@esri.com

From the Dynamic World dataset, DOI: PENDING DYNAMICWORLD DOI

These data comprise the expert consensus set of GeoTIFF test tiles used for validating Dynamic World and other LULC maps. A metadata CSV is also included to enable cross-walking between these tiles and the Sentinel-2 L2A used to annotate the tile.

The Dynamic World abstract:

We developed a new automated approach for globally consistent, high resolution, near real-time (NRT) land use land cover (LULC) mapping leveraging deep learning on 10m Sentinel-2 imagery. When compared to other global LULC datasets, our data exceeded the next best global product agreement with an expert consensus test set by 7.5%. We utilize a highly scalable cloud based system for generating LULC maps and provide an open, continuous feed of LULC in parallel with Sentinel-2 acquisitions. This NRT product accommodates a variety of user needs ranging from extremely up-to-date LULC data to annual global maps. Furthermore, the continuous nature of the product's outputs enables refinement, extension, and even redefinition of the LULC classification. In combination, these unique attributes enable unprecedented flexibility for a diverse community of users across a variety of disciplines.

HILDA+ (HIstoric Land Dynamics Assessment+) is a global dataset on annual land use/cover change between 1960-2019 at 1 km spatial resolution. It is based on a data-driven reconstruction approach and integrates multiple open data streams (from high-resolution remote sensing, long-term land use reconstructions and statistics). It covers six generic land use/cover categories: 1: Urban areas, 2: Cropland, 3: Pasture/rangeland, 4: Forest, 5: Unmanaged grass/shrubland, 6: Sparse/no vegetation. […]

The Terra and Aqua combined Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Land Cover Dynamics (MCD12Q2) Version 6.1 data product provides global land surface phenology metrics at yearly intervals from 2001 to 2021. The MCD12Q2 Version 6.1 data product is derived from time series of the 2-band Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI2) calculated from MODIS Nadir Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF)-Adjusted Reflectance (NBAR). Vegetation phenology metrics at 500 meter spatial resolution are identified for up to two detected growing cycles per year. For pixels with more than two valid vegetation cycles, the data represent the two cycles with the largest NBAR-EVI2 amplitudes.Provided in each MCD12Q2 Version 6.1 Hierarchical Data Format 4 (HDF4) file are layers for the total number of vegetation cycles detected for the product year, the onset of greenness, greenup midpoint, maturity, peak greenness, senescence, greendown midpoint, dormancy, EVI2 minimum, EVI2 amplitude, integrated EVI2 over a vegetation cycle, as well as overall and phenology metric-specific quality information. SDS layers may be multi-dimensional with up to two valid vegetation cycles. For areas where the NBAR-EVI2 values are missing due to cloud cover or other reasons, the data gaps are filled with good quality NBAR-EVI2 values from the year directly preceding or following the product year.Known Issues Known issues are described in Section 3.2 of the User Guide. * For complete information about known issues please refer to the MODIS/VIIRS Land Quality Assessment website.Improvements/Changes from Previous Versions The Version 6.1 Level-1B (L1B) products have been improved by undergoing various calibration changes that include: changes to the response-versus-scan angle (RVS) approach that affects reflectance bands for Aqua and Terra MODIS, corrections to adjust for the optical crosstalk in Terra MODIS infrared (IR) bands, and corrections to the Terra MODIS forward look-up table (LUT) update for the period 2012 - 2017. A polarization correction has been applied to the L1B Reflective Solar Bands (RSB). The MCD12Q2 Version 6.1 product has an improved approach to snow filtering.

ESA Land Cover Climate Change Initiative (Land_Cover_cci): Global Land Cover Maps, Version 1.6.1. CLIMATE APPLICATIONS: Climate and carbon modelling, weather prediction (NWP), global circulation models and regional climate models, global and regional Earth system models, carbon cycle models and dynamic vegetation and hydrology models, climate change mitigation

World Elevation layers are compiled from many authoritative data providers, and are updated quarterly. This map shows the extent of the various datasets comprising the World Elevation dynamic (Terrain,TopoBathy) and tiled (Terrain 3D, TopoBathy 3D, World Hillshade, World Hillshade (Dark)) services.The tiled services (Terrain 3D,TopoBathy 3D,World Hillshade,World Hillshade (Dark)) also include an additional data source from Maxar's Precision3D covering parts of the globe.Note: ArcGIS Elevation service, Terrain 3D (for Export) and TopoBathy 3D (for Export) does not include Maxar Precision3D and Airbus WorldDEM4Ortho.To view the all the sources in a table format, check out World Elevation Data Sources Table.Topography sources listed in the table are part of Terrain, TopoBathy, Terrain 3D, TopoBathy 3D, World Hillshade and World Hillshade (Dark), while bathymetry sources are part of TopoBathy and TopoBathy 3D only.Disclaimer: Data sources are not to be used for navigation/safety at sea and in air.

About the dataLand use land cover (LULC) maps are an increasingly important tool for decision-makers in many industry sectors and developing nations around the world. The information provided by these maps helps inform policy and land management decisions by better understanding and quantifying the impacts of earth processes and human activity.ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World provides a detailed, accurate, and timely LULC map of the world. The data is the result of a three-way collaboration among Esri, Impact Observatory, and Microsoft. For more information about the data, see Sentinel-2 10m Land Use/Land Cover Time Series.About the appOne of the foremost capabilities of this app is the dynamic change analysis. The app provides dynamic visual and statistical change by comparing annual slices of the Sentinel-2 10m Land Use/Land Cover data as you explore the map.Overview of capabilities:Visual change analysis with either 'Step Mode' or 'Swipe Mode'Dynamic statistical change analysis by year, map extent, and classFilter by selected land cover classRegional class statistics summarized by administrative boundariesImagery mode for visual investigation and validation of land coverSelect imagery renderings (e.g. SWIR to visualize forest burn scars)Data download for offline use

Land cover (LC) is an important terrestrial variable and key information for understanding the interaction between human activities and global change. As the cause and result of global environmental change, land cover change (LCC) influences the global energy balance and biogeochemical cycles. Continuous and dynamic monitoring of global LC is urgently needed. Effective monitoring and comprehensive analysis of LCC at the global scale is rare. Using the latest version of GLASS (The Global Land Surface Satellite) CDRs (Climate Data Records) from 1982 to 2015, we built the first set of CDRs to record the annual dynamics of global land cover (GLASS-GLC) at 5 km resolution using the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. Compared to earlier global LC products, GLASS-GLC is characterized by high consistency, more detailed classes, and longer temporal coverage. The average overall accuracy is 85 %. We implemented a systematic uncertainty analysis at the global scale. In addition, we carried out a comprehensive spatiotemporal pattern analysis. Significant changes and patterns at various scales were found, including deforestation and agricultural land expansion in the tropics, afforestation and forest expansion in northern high latitudes, land degradation in Asian grassland and reclamation in northeast China, etc. A global quantitative analysis of human factors showed that the average human impact level in areas with significant LCC was about 25.49 %. The anthropogenic influence has a strong correlation with the noticeable Earth greening. Based on GLASS-GLC, we can conduct long-term LCC analysis, improve our understanding of global environmental change, and mitigate its negative impact. GLASS-GLC will be further applied in Earth system modeling in order to facilitate research on global carbon and water cycling, vegetation dynamics and climate change.

The role of Pre- and Protohistoric anthropogenic land cover changes needs to be quantified i) to establish a baseline for comparison with current human impact on the environment and ii) to separate it from naturally occurring changes in our environment. Results are presented from the simple, adaptation-driven, spatially explicit Global Land Use and technological Evolution Simulator (GLUES) for pre-Bronze age demographic, technological and economic change. Using scaling parameters from the History Database of the Global Environment as well as GLUES-simulated population density and subsistence style, the land requirement for growing crops is estimated. The intrusion of cropland into potentially forested areas is translated into carbon loss due to deforestation with the dynamic global vegetation model VECODE. The land demand in important Prehistoric growth areas - converted from mostly forested areas - led to large-scale regional (country size) deforestation of up to 11% of the potential forest. In total, 29 Gt carbon were lost from global forests between 10 000 BC and 2000 BC and were replaced by crops; this value is consistent with other estimates of Prehistoric deforestation. The generation of realistic (agri-)cultural development trajectories at a regional resolution is a major strength of GLUES. Most of the pre-Bronze age deforestation is simulated in a broad farming belt from Central Europe via India to China. Regional carbon loss is, e.g., 5 Gt in Europe and the Mediterranean, 6 Gt on the Indian subcontinent, 18 Gt in East and Southeast Asia, or 2.3 Gt in subsaharan Africa.

Future climate change may significantly alter the distributions of many plant taxa. The effects of climate change may be particularly large in mountainous regions where climate can vary significantly with elevation. Understanding potential future vegetation changes in these regions requires methods that can resolve vegetation responses to climate change at fine spatial resolutions.We used LPJ, a dynamic global vegetation model, to assess potential future vegetation changes for a large topographically complex area of the northwest United States and southwest Canada (38.0–58.0°N latitude by 136.6–103.0°W longitude). LPJ is a process-based vegetation model that mechanistically simulates the effect of changing climate and atmospheric CO2 concentrations on vegetation. It was developed and has been mostly applied at spatial resolutions of 10-minutes or coarser. In this study, we used LPJ at a 30-second (~1-km) spatial resolution to simulate potential vegetation changes for 2070–2099. LPJ was run using downscaled future climate simulations from five coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation models (CCSM3, CGCM3.1(T47), GISS-ER, MIROC3.2(medres), UKMO-HadCM3) produced using the A2 greenhouse gases emissions scenario. Under projected future climate and atmospheric CO2 concentrations, the simulated vegetation changes result in the contraction of alpine, shrub-steppe, and xeric shrub vegetation across the study area and the expansion of woodland and forest vegetation. Large areas of maritime cool forest and cold forest are simulated to persist under projected future conditions. The fine spatial-scale vegetation simulations resolve patterns of vegetation change that are not visible at coarser resolutions and these fine-scale patterns are particularly important for understanding potential future vegetation changes in topographically complex areas.

The VNP22Q2 Version 1 data product was decommissioned on July 31, 2025. Users are encouraged to use the VNP22Q2 Version 2 data product.

The NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Land Cover Dynamics data product provides global land surface phenology (GLSP) metrics at yearly intervals. The VNP22Q2 data product is derived from time series of the two-band Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI2) calculated from VIIRS Nadir Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF)-Adjusted Reflectance (NBAR). Vegetation phenology metrics at 500 meter spatial resolution are identified for up to two detected growing cycles per year.

Provided in each VNP22Q2 product are 19 Science Dataset (SDS) layers. The product contains six phenological transition dates: onset of greenness increase, onset of greenness maximum, onset of greenness decrease, onset of greenness minimum, dates of mid-greenup, and senescence phases. The product also includes the growing season length. The greenness related metrics consist of EVI2 onset of greenness increase, EVI2 onset of greenness maximum, EVI2 growing season, rate of greenness increase and rate of greenness decrease. The confidence of phenology detection is provided as greenness agreement growing season, proportion of good quality (PGQ) growing season, PGQ onset greenness increase, PGQ onset greenness maximum, PGQ onset greenness decrease, and PGQ onset greenness minimum. The final layer is quality control specifying the overall quality of the product. A low-resolution browse image showing greenup is also available when viewing each VNP22Q2 granule.

Important information is provided in Sections 5 of the User Guide when comparing VNP22Q2 with the MCD12Q2 data product.

Known Issues * For complete information about known issues please refer to the MODIS/VIIRS Land Quality Assessment website.

Constitución County in Chile shows one of the highest landscape transformations in the world due to the expansion of forest plantations. This work describes the land use/cover dynamics over a long period extending over 60 years in Constitución County. The results showed that 60% of the county extent was covered by natural vegetationt in 1955. However, forest plantation increased to 36% by 1975 and reached 72% by 2014. This expansion was mainly achieved by replacing native vegetation revealing evidence of the impact of forest plantations on native vegetation even before decree-law 701 (1974). Forest plantation expansion produced fragmentation and loss of natural habitat, and 50% of the remaining habitats showed low habitat quality by 2014. Finally, in 2017 a wildfire burned 77% and 42% of the remaining native forest and shrubland. These results showed the long-lasting impact of forest plantations, underpinning the need to move towards a new sustainable forest model.

This resource will be a part of the collection "CUAHSI Legacy Documents", and will contain 1 pdf.

The purpose of this report is as follows: Experience from the CUAHSI Hydrologic Information Systems project has shown that a multi-phase approach is needed to move from concept to a community facility. The conceptual phase must be followed up by a pilot phase to scope a project more precisely and to determine the best approach to delivering a service. The pilot phase is then followed by a developmental phase when the specific tools and services are “hardened” by testing them with a limited clientele to ensure reliability and operational readiness to serve the community. Only then have the necessary attributes of an operational community service been fully defined. This science plan summarizes the results of these interim community planning efforts.