Northern Ireland Land Cover 2007 at 1km Resolution

LCM2007 provides a parcel-based thematic classification of satellite imagery covering the entire United Kingdom, updating earlier 1990 and 2000 maps. This version is a 1km raster dataset showing percentage aggregate land cover classes for Northern Ireland only. It uses the Joint Nature Conservation Committee Broad Habitats nomenclature, incorporating further detail from ancillary data sources.

Use Cases

• Analyze percentage aggregate class distributions across Northern Ireland to quantify habitat coverage.
• Compare land cover classifications from LCM2007 with earlier LCM2000 and LCMGB 1990 products for change detection.
• Integrate the 1km raster data with other spatial datasets using the JNCC Broad Habitats framework for ecological modeling.
• Study the incorporation of ancillary data sources in satellite image classification for land cover mapping.

Strengths

• Covers the entire United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland which was absent in the earlier LCMGB 1990 product.
• Updates and upgrades two prior national land cover maps (LCMGB 1990 and LCM2000), providing a temporal series.
• Classified using the standardized JNCC Broad Habitats nomenclature, encompassing the full range of UK habitats.
• Available in multiple formats and versions, including vector and raster at different spatial resolutions.

Limitations

• Data is from 2007, which may be stale for analyzing current land cover conditions or recent changes.
• The specific 1km percentage aggregate class version offers a generalized view, lacking the finer detail of other dataset versions.
• Limited to Northern Ireland in this specific raster extract, requiring separate downloads for full UK coverage.

Provenance

Source

Environmental Information Data Centre

Collection Method

Derived from computer classification of satellite scenes (mainly Landsat, IRS, SPOT) and ancillary datasets.

Time Range

2007

Freshness

Last metadata update was 2026-03-11, but the underlying land cover data is from 2007.

Geography

Northern Ireland, United Kingdom