CLMS
The Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS), coordinated in Spain by the Instituto Geográfico Nacional (IGN) / Centro Nacional de Información Geographica (CNIG), provides detailed geospatial information on land cover, land use and their changes over time. It also offers data on the state of vegetation, the water cycle, ground deformations and variables related to the Earth's surface energy, facilitating the analysis of environmental and territorial dynamics.
This service is developed under the coordination of the European Environment Agency (EEA, European Environment Agency) and the Joint Research Center (JRC), in close collaboration with the European Commission and the Member States. Its objective is to guarantee the availability of accurate and up-to-date information to support decision-making in key areas of land and the environment.
The data generated by this service has multiple applications, such as land use and urban planning, forest and water management, agriculture and food security, nature conservation and restoration, rural development, and emergency management.
The CLMS service offers a series of global, continental, and local products focused on key thematic areas for territorial knowledge, as shown below.
Land cover and land-use mapping offers detailed datasets at varying levels of precision, both in a pan-European context and at a global scale.
At the global level, the product is called Global Dynamic Land Cover, which offers land cover mapping following the FAO Land Cover Classification System (LCCS), a hierarchical model that allows for standardized and flexible classification worldwide.
At European level, the product par excellence is the CORINE Land Cover, although in recent years work has been done on a modernized version, the CLC+, which will meet the increasingly demanding needs of users.
Additionally, these products are complemented by detailed thematic layers, collectively referred to as High Resolution Layers (HRLs), which provide additional information on specific land cover features: soil waterproofing (soil sealing and urban expansion), forests (structure, type and density of trees), grasslands (distribution and evolution of herbaceous areas), water and wetlands (bodies of water, wetlands and their seasonality), crops and small woody formations (fragments of tree vegetation scattered in the landscape).
Monitoring priority areas aims to provide detailed and tailored information on land cover and use in areas of specific interest, commonly referred to as "hot spots." In the context of the CLMS, hot spots are areas that are particularly vulnerable to certain environmental challenges, such as deforestation, uncontrolled urban expansion, loss of wetlands and aquatic ecosystems, or desertification.
Continuous monitoring of these areas enables more effective environmental management, providing key data for territorial planning, ecosystem conservation, and the implementation of climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies.
The Biogeophysical Parameter Set provides a series of high-quality geospatial products that allow for the assessment of the state and evolution of the Earth's surface. These products are used to analyze and monitor key aspects such as vegetation, crops, the water cycle, the cryosphere, and the Earth's surface energy balance.
For ease of access and application, this parameter set is organized within the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS) into five thematic blocks:
- Soil Moisture: Assessment of soil water content, essential for drought, agriculture, and water balance studies.
- Snow: Monitoring snow cover and its seasonal evolution, with impacts on climate and water availability.
- Vegetation: Monitoring vegetation density, productivity, and condition.
- Temperature and Reflectance: Measurement of the Earth's surface temperature and its interaction with solar radiation.
- Water Bodies: Identification and analysis of lakes, reservoirs, rivers, and other surface water bodies.
These data are essential for multiple areas, including natural resource management, agricultural planning, climate modeling, natural disaster prevention, and ecosystem conservation.
The service generates information on three levels:
- Raw data (Basic) with unprocessed interferometric measurements.
- Intermediate data (Calibrated) corrected and adjusted with geodetic references.
- Advanced data (Ortho) processed and geometrically corrected, ready for use in geospatial analysis.
EGMS's ability to detect ground movements with millimetre precision makes it useful in numerous areas, such as: the analysis of subsidence caused by groundwater extraction or mining, the assessment of seismic and volcanic risks, the control of critical infrastructure such as bridges, dams or buildings, or landslide management, identifying unstable areas and assessing geotechnical risk.
More information here.
CLMS satellite data include image mosaics obtained from contributing missions (SPOT, Geoeye, among others), covering the European territory, as well as the production of global Sentinel-2 image mosaics. These mosaics are composed of processed and calibrated images to provide a homogeneous and up-to-date view of the territory, facilitating their use in various geospatial applications.
The datasets offered in this component are: Very High Resolution European Mosaic (VHR-EIM), European High Resolution Mosaic (HR-EIM), and the Global Sentinel 2 Mosaic (GIM).
Reference and validation data include homogeneous pan-European datasets, such as hydrographic databases, as well as global-scale in-situ measurements. These data play a key role in the calibration and verification of CLMS products, ensuring their reliability for applications in environmental monitoring, spatial planning, and climate change modeling.