Land Cover and Change Maps for African, Caribbean, and Pacific Conservation Areas

An update covering 852,025 km² in the Caribbean, African, and Pacific regions, this dataset provides land cover and change maps with up to 32 classes. The data was produced by Zoltan Szantoi and colleagues at the European Commission using medium to high resolution satellite imagery. Each map and change map was fully verified and validated by an independent team to meet strict quality requirements.

Use Cases

• Monitoring habitat loss in vulnerable areas based on land cover change maps.
• Assessing conservation status of wildlife corridors based on thematic land cover classes.
• Validating remote sensing classification algorithms based on the independent verification process described.
• Analyzing pressure on unprotected ecological zones compared to Protected Areas based on the mapping focus.

Strengths

• Covers a total mapped area of 852,025 km² across multiple regions.
• Includes up to 32 distinct land cover classes for detailed analysis.
• Features independent verification and validation of all maps to ensure data quality.
• Uses medium to high spatial resolution satellite imagery as a source.

Limitations

• Row count and specific file sizes are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred from the referenced publication.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

European Commission

Collection Method

Generated from medium to high resolution satellite imagery time series, with mapping and validation procedures described in a corresponding 2021 publication.

Geography

Selected areas in sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific regions.