Global Land Cover Map at 10-Meter Resolution

ESA WorldCover 2021 provides a global map of 11 land cover classes, such as trees and cropland. The dataset offers worldwide coverage at a 10-meter spatial resolution, organized into 3x3 degree tiles. It was produced by a consortium led by VITO and partners for the reference year 2021.

Use Cases

• Classify land cover types like trees, cropland, or built-up areas using the 11-class thematic map layer.
• Analyze spatial patterns of water bodies or bare vegetation at a 10-meter resolution per tile.
• Monitor changes in urban or agricultural extent by comparing the 2021 map layer with other temporal versions.
• Train semantic segmentation models for satellite imagery using the high-resolution land cover labels.
• Assess regional environmental indicators by aggregating tile-based data for areas defined by latitude and longitude coordinates.

Strengths

• Global spatial coverage for all land areas.
• High 10-meter spatial resolution for detailed land cover analysis.
• Standardized 11 land cover classes enable consistent global comparison.

Limitations

• Ocean areas and inner ice sheets are excluded and do not have tiles.
• Data is provided as a snapshot for 2021, limiting temporal analysis without other years.
• The 3x3 degree tile structure requires mosaicking for continental or country-scale analysis.

Provenance

Source

European Space Agency (ESA) consortium led by VITO.

Collection Method

Produced from satellite remote sensing data.

Time Range

2021

Freshness

null

Geography

Global land coverage