Characterization of land use cover datasets from a global to an Andalusian level: an “obstacle course” for users
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21138/GF.794Resumo
Advances in the field of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and in Remote Sensing (RS) have led to the production of a significant number of Land Use and Land Cover (LUC) datasets. These datasets show great diversity in terms of the extents mapped, the scale and spatial resolution, or the temporal and thematic resolution, among others. In this paper, we review 33 general (non-thematic) LUC datasets covering different extents (from global to regional level), which are currently available or will be in the future for Andalusia (Spain). 17 are Global, 10 European, 3 cover Spain and 3 Andalusia. The aim is to analyze the spatial, temporal and thematic parameters of these datasets so as to enable users to choose the one that best suits their purposes. Spatial parameters include format, spatial resolution, cartographic scale, Minimum Mapping Unit (MMU) and Minimum Mapping Width (MMW); temporal parameters include temporal resolution or timeframe (single or time series), i.e. the length of time and the number of available dates. The thematic parameters include the number of classes and their nature, compatible legends and group of classes. This comparative analysis shows that within these 33 datasets, at least 217 different products/maps are on offer to users. This wide variety of maps is a major source of uncertainty and makes the path to find the best LUC dataset a real “obstacle course” for users.
Downloads
Publicado
Como Citar
Edição
Secção
Licença
©The authors of the articles and other contributions published in GeoFocus keep intact the intellectual property rights over them. The authors and the publisher authorize the total or partial reproduction of the contents of the journal in the following terms:
1) Express mention of the author and the reference of the original publication.
2) Do not perform a commercial or lucrative use of them. Otherwise, you should contact the authors to make the appropriate arrangements.
3) Authors preserve their property rights and give to the journal the rights of the first publication of the work, registered with the Licencia Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivar 4.0 Internacional, which allows third parties to use the published data whenever the authorship of the work and first publication in this journal is mentioned.
4) It is allowed that authors disseminate electronically (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their own website) the published version of their work, as it encourages the earliest circulation and dissemination, and thus a possible increase in the citation and scope in the academic community.