European and International Framework
Information on land occupation at the global level is mainly characterised by its heterogeneity. If at continental or national level there are proven projects of this type of data, at the global level what prevails are initiatives and policies that demand their maintenance, dissemination and use in a more diverse manner.
There is no global reference land occupation database, the alternative is to obtain environmental indicators or parameters mainly from satellite images (e.g. leaf area index, soil moisture, fraction of green cover, etc.). These, by means of easy-to-obtain numerical values, are able to give a broad outline of all international territories in a simple and quick way, without the need to resort to a classical land occupation product.
The United Nations Committee on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) aims to play a leading role in the development of global geospatial information and promote its use to address key global challenges, such as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It provides a forum for communication and coordination between member states and international organisations.
UN-GGIM considers Global Foundational Geospatial Data Themes in global geospatial information management, including land occupation.
INSPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe) establishes the general rules for the establishment of a Spatial Information Infrastructure in the European Community based on the Member States' Infrastructures. It was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council on 14 March 2007 (Directive 2007/2/EC). Its purpose is to make relevant, concerted and quality geographic information available in order to enable the formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies with an impact or territorial dimension of the European Union.
To ensure that Member States' spatial data infrastructures are compatible and interoperable in an EU and cross-border context, the Directive requires the adoption of common Implementing Rules specific to the following areas: metadata, datasets, network services, monitoring and reporting. Some of these rules are European Commission Regulations and are therefore mandatory in each EU country. The technical implementation of these standards is carried out through Technical Guidelines, technical documents based on international standards and norms.
The transposition of the Directive at national level was carried out through Law 14/2010, of 5 July, on geographic information infrastructures and services in Spain (LISIGE), which incorporates Directive 2007/2/EC into the Spanish legal system for its compliance and includes the establishment of the Geographic Information Infrastructure of Spain. This guarantees the integration of the set of geographic information infrastructures and interoperable geographic information services under the responsibility of the Spanish Public Administrations. Among its tasks is the creation of the Board of Directors of the Geographic Information Infrastructure in Spain (CODIIGE) where one of its main objectives is to adopt the Regulations establishing the INSPIRE technical specifications corresponding to the interoperability of geographic data and geographic information services and to monitor their compliance.
In terms of datasets, the Directive defines 34 thematic areas, prioritised in 3 annexes, for which implementing rules and technical guidelines were developed that Member States have to use to adapt their datasets to European requirements and avoid duplication. It is very important to stress the importance of knowing that INSPIRE does not demand the production of new geographic data, it is not a production initiative, but does require from the Member States the adaptation of their national data according to its standards.
In particular, land occupation is divided into two INSPIRE themes:
- Annex II, theme 2, Land Cover (LC): Physical and biological cover of the land surface, including artificial surfaces, agricultural areas, forests, natural or semi-natural areas, wetlands and water bodies.
- Annex III, theme 4, Land Use (LU): Characterisation of the territory, according to its functional dimension or its planned current or future socio-economic use (e.g. residential, industrial, commercial, agricultural, forestry, recreational).
The European Environment Information and Observation Network (EIONET) is a network of national organisations that collaborate at the European level to provide the information needed by the Member States and the European Commission to adopt the necessary measures to protect the environment. It belongs to the European Environment Agency, and its main objective is to provide data, information and specialised, timely and quality-assured knowledge to assess the state of the environment in Europe.
In Spain, the National Focal Point of EIONET is the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITERD), which delegates thematic competences to expert bodies for its better development.
The Land Occupation Service of the National Geographic Institute, as coordinator of the SIOSE and CORINE Land Cover projects, plays the role of "Support to Copernicus Land Monitoring Service" of the EIONET Network under the "National Focal Point" (Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge).
In 1993, FAO developed an approach for the design, definition and classification of land cover. This Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) was established as a methodology for defining and classifying land cover in Africa, and was later evolved to contribute to the first ISO standard dedicated to land cover. Currently there are a set of standards focused on the standardisation of land cover and land use classification that are part of the activities coordinated by the ISO 211 Technical Committee on Geographic Information and Geomatics.
- ISO 19144-1:2009 Classification systems - Part 1: Classification system structure: This international standard defines the generic structure for the development of a classification system, not exclusively for land cover or land use, together with a general mechanism for defining and registering classifiers.
- ISO 19144-2:2012 Classification system - Part 2: Land Cover Meta Language (LCML): This international standard defines the generic structure for the development of a land cover classification system and functions as a language for comparing different land cover classifications.
- The following standards are under development: ISO 19144-2 Classification system - Part 3: Land Use Meta Language (LUML) and ISO 19144-4 Classification system - Part 4: Registration and Implementation Aspects.
| ISO Geographic information — Classification systems | ||
|---|---|---|
| 19144-1 | Part 1: Classification system structure | Working Group P1 |
| 19144-2 | Part 2: Land Cover Meta Language (LCML) | Working Group P2 |
| 19144-3 | Part 3: Land Use Meta Language (LUML) | Working Group P3 |
| 19144-4 | Part 4: Registration and Implementation Aspects | Working Group P4 |
GEO (Group of Earth Observation) is a partnership of more than 100 national governments and organisations working to achieve a benefit based on Earth observation. GEO connects government institutions, academic and research institutions, data providers or companies to create innovative solutions to global challenges.
GEO manages GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems) to better integrate observing systems and share data by connecting existing infrastructures using common standards. There are more than 400 million open data resources in GEOSS from more than 150 national and regional providers such as NASA or ESA.
Although traditionally the thematic content accessible from GEOSS is direct Remote Sensing products (e.g. imagery or derived parameters), there are a large number of catalogued land occupation datasets that are useful for any global user.
Global land occupation information is mainly characterised by its heterogeneity and the lack of a clear predominance of a basic project that provides data in a consensual and continuous manner over time.
The available datasets are usually of medium or small scales, generated by automatic image processing, mainly by classifications. The data offered have basic and reduced class ranges, always of land cover and never of land use. And their update frequencies are equally irregular due to lack of resources or global interest. Fortunately, in most cases they are easily accessible, downloadable and usable data.
Global land cover systems comprehensively cover all types of land cover classes together (man-made, agricultural, forest, natural and water). Of particular importance are the more recent and more detailed products, such as Global Land Cover from ESA, JRC and EEA; MODIS Land Cover from USGS (United States Geological Survey); and GlobeLand30 from NGCC (National Geomatics Center of China).
Diagram of existing GLC2000 blocks and example of Global Land Cover data for the Iberian Peninsula loaded into Google Earth.