GFSAD30SACE: Cropland Extent for South America 2015

NASA's MEaSUREs Global Food Security-support Analysis Data (GFSAD) product provides a 30-meter resolution cropland extent map for South America for the nominal year 2015. The data product classifies land into cropland, non-cropland, and water bodies using a Random Forest classifier applied to Landsat 5, 7, 8, and SRTM elevation data. It serves as a critical baseline for studies related to agricultural land use, water sustainability, and food security policy.

Use Cases

• Mapping agricultural land use change based on the 2015 cropland/non-cropland classification.
• Assessing water sustainability for irrigation by analyzing the spatial distribution of cropland.
• Informing food security policy with a high-resolution baseline map of South American agricultural areas.
• Validating other land cover products using a pixel-based supervised classification derived from Landsat and SRTM data.

Strengths

• Provides continent-wide coverage for South America at a high 30-meter spatial resolution.
• Uses a robust, peer-reviewed methodology combining multi-sensor Landsat data and SRTM elevation within a Random Forest classifier.
• Generated under NASA's MEaSUREs program, indicating a standardized, research-quality data record.

Limitations

• Metadata conflicts exist: last updated dates are reported as 2016-12-31 and 2026-03-13 across different platform entries.
• Represents a single nominal year (2015), limiting analysis of trends over time.
• Known issues and constraints are documented but require consulting a separate ATBD (Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document) document.

Provenance

Source

NASA Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) program, produced by LPCLOUD.

Collection Method

Pixel-based supervised classification (Random Forest) applied to Landsat 5 TM, Landsat 7 ETM+, Landsat 8 OLI, and SRTM Version 3 elevation data.

Time Range

2015

Freshness

2026-03-13 02:13:50.826968

Geography

South America, tiled in 10° by 10° areas.