LBA-ECO LC-24: Landsat Land Cover for Southern Para, Brazil

1984 to 2003 land cover classification for Southern Para, Brazil, derived from Landsat MSS, TM, and ETM+ imagery. The dataset contains four annual GeoTIFF files showing five visual comparison classes: Water, Clouds/Shadow, Forest, Not Forest, and Background. It was used in a 2007 study to illustrate deforestation patterns over two decades.

Use Cases

• Tracking deforestation rates based on the 'Forest' and 'Not Forest' class changes over time.
• Analyzing spatial patterns of land cover change from the four annual GeoTIFF raster files.
• Validating or comparing automated classification algorithms using the visual comparison methodology.
• Providing a historical baseline for contemporary land cover studies in Southern Para.

Strengths

• Provides a consistent, visually interpreted five-class classification for four key years over a 20-year period.
• Cross-platform presence on NASA and government portals indicates established scientific use and reliability.
• Data is derived from established Landsat sensors (MSS, TM, ETM+) with known spatial and spectral characteristics.

Limitations

• Metadata conflict: last updated date is reported as both 2003-08-03 and 2026-04-10, indicating potential platform synchronization issues.
• Limited to only five broad land cover classes, which may lack detail for fine-grained ecological analysis.
• No column or attribute details are provided in the source metadata, limiting understanding of file structure.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Visual comparison classification of Landsat satellite imagery.

Time Range

1984, 1988, III, 2003

Freshness

The underlying data covers 1984-2003; metadata last updated dates conflict between 2003 and 2026.

Geography

Southern Para, Brazil