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  1. Home
  2. Essential Climate Variables
  3. Land Cover

Download shortened print version of ECV factsheet (pdf) here.


Data Sources

ECV Products and Requirements


Land-Cover

Land cover is the observed (bio)-physical cover on the Earth’s surface. It influences climate by modifying water and energy exchanges with the atmosphere and by changing greenhouse gas and aerosol sources and sinks. Land-cover conditions are inherently dynamic (i.e. seasonality) and distributions are linked to regional climatic conditions, so changes in cover can be due to climate change on a regional scale as well as directly due to human activities.
  Domain: Terrestrial
  Subdomain: Biology
  Scientific Area: Biosphere
  ECV Steward: Sarah Carter, Martin Herold
  Products:  Maps of Land Cover; Maps of High Resolution Land Cover; Maps of Key IPCC Land Use, Related Changes and Land Management Types

 


Global Land Cover

Figure: Global land cover data for the year 2015 (http://www.esa-landcover-cci.org/)

Legend and interactive map under: http://maps.elie.ucl.ac.be/CCI/viewer/index.php

EU Copernicus

 

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