GFSAD: Cropland Extent Map of Africa at 30m Resolution for 2015

NASA's GFSAD30AFCE data product provides a cropland extent layer for the continent of Africa for the nominal year 2015. The 30-meter resolution data is derived from Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2 satellite imagery combined with SRTM elevation data, using Random Forest, Support Vector Machine, and RHSEG classifiers. It is produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as part of the MEaSUREs program.

Use Cases

• Baseline mapping for agricultural studies based on the cropland, non-cropland, and water body classifications.
• Policy analysis for food security based on continent-wide cropland extent data.
• Model validation for land cover change detection based on the 30-meter resolution satellite-derived data.
• Water resource assessment based on the integration of cropland data with elevation information.

Strengths

• Data is derived from a combination of Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2 satellite imagery, suggesting multi-source validation.
• Uses three distinct classification methods (Random Forest, SVM, RHSEG), which may improve accuracy.
• Provides continent-wide coverage for Africa at a consistent 30-meter spatial resolution.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Known issues and constraints are referenced but require accessing a separate document (ATBD page 20).
• The data represents a single nominal year (2015), limiting temporal trend analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) MEaSUREs program

Collection Method

Pixel-based and object-oriented classification of Landsat 8 OLI and Sentinel-2 MSI data combined with SRTM elevation.

Time Range

2015

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 02:13:40.042519; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Continent of Africa