SAFARI 2000: Southern African Land Cover from AVHRR, 8-km, 1984

SAFARI 2000 Land Cover from AVHRR is a regional subset of the University of Maryland's 8-km global land cover product. It classifies land cover into 13 classes using 1984 NASA/NOAA Pathfinder Land data, incorporating red, infrared, thermal bands, and NDVI to improve discrimination. The dataset supports research on land use change and vegetation dynamics in southern Africa.

Use Cases

• Analyzing historical land cover change in southern Africa based on the 13-class classification.
• Testing the stability of land cover classification algorithms using the 14-year data record (1981-1994).
• Improving discrimination between vegetation types using the included red, infrared, thermal, and NDVI bands.
• Developing methodologies for global land cover mapping based on temporal vegetation dynamics metrics.

Strengths

• Includes a 14-year temporal record (1981-1994) for algorithm stability testing.
• Uses multiple spectral bands (red, infrared, thermal, NDVI) to improve discrimination between 13 land cover classes.
• Derived from a well-established global product (UMD 8-km Global Land Cover) using a decision tree classifier.

Limitations

• Metadata conflicts exist: one platform lists a last update in 2026, while another suggests the core data is from 1984.
• Specific column names, row counts, and file sizes are not provided in the available metadata.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without further detail.

Provenance

Source

Laboratory for Global Remote Sensing Studies (LGRSS), University of Maryland, derived from NASA/NOAA Pathfinder Land (PAL) data.

Collection Method

Derived by applying temporal vegetation dynamics metrics to 1984 PAL data using a decision tree classifier.

Time Range

1981-1994

Freshness

2026-04-09 (from datagov), but core data is from 1984.

Geography

Southern Africa