ECV Products and Requirements for Land Cover
These products and requirements reflect the Implementation Plan 2016 (GCOS-200). GCOS is reviewing and will update the requirements until 2022. More information on: gcos.wmo.int.
| PRODUCT | DEFINITION | FREQ. | RESO. | REQUIRED MEASUREMENT UNCERTAINTY | STABILITY | STAND./ REF. |
| Maps of land cover | Primary unit are categories (binary variables such as forest or cropland) or continuous variables classifiers (e.g. fraction of tree canopy cover in percent) | Annual | 250m | 15% (maximum error of omission and commission in mapping individual classes), location accuracy better than 1/3 IFOV with target IFOV 250 m | 15% (maximum error of omission and commission in mapping individual classes), location accuracy better than 1/3 IFOV with target IFOV 250 m | No agreed standards but see GLCN (2014) and GOFC-GOLD (2015a) |
| Maps of high resolution land cover | Primary unit are categories (binary variables such as forest or cropland) or continuous variables classifiers (e.g. fraction of tree canopy cover in percent). Secondary outputs include surface area of land cover/use types and land cover/use changes (in ha) | 5 year | 10 - 30m | 5% (maximum error of omission and commission in mapping individual classes), location accuracy better than 1/3 IFOV with target IFOV 10-30 m | 5% (maximum error of omission and commission in mapping individual classes), location accuracy better than 1/3 IFOV with target IFOV 10-30 m | |
| Maps of key IPCC land use, related changes and land management types | IPCC Good Practice Guidelines land use categories (forest land, cropland, grassland, wetland, settlement, other land) | 1-10 years (incl. historical data) | 10-1000 m (depending on time period) | 20% (maximum error of omission and commission in mapping individual classes), location accuracy better than 1/3 IFOV with target IFOV | 20% (maximum error of omission and commission in mapping individual classes), location accuracy better than 1/3 IFOV with target IFOV | IPCC (2006) |
