| Aim of the method/technique |
The aim of the description of land cover in cropland is to assess the protection of the soil against erosion, the ability of the plants to withstand drought, the vulnerability of the land to degradation. The land cover map constitutes one of the basic components of the description of a SES in LEDDRA project. |
| Scale – spatial and temporal |
A detailed or semi-detailed map of land cover at the scale 1:20,000 or 1:50,000 can be useful for regional studies in the LEDDRA project. Since human interventions can change the land cover rapidly, such as by changing land use, generating fires, etc., spatial and temporal changes can occur frequently. Existing maps of land cover should be updated frequently (at least every 10 years). CORINE land cover maps are available for 1990, 2000, 2006. |
| Brief description |
Land cover data can be extracted from the CORINE data basis. As Table 4 shows, level 2 (major land uses) land cover can be distinguished as (a) artificial areas, (b) agricultural areas, (c) forest and semi-natural areas, and (d) wetlands and water bodies. Land cover is further subdivided at lower level (label level 3) providing more information for each land cover category Table 1).
Table 1. Categories of CORINE land cover data basis at various levels (Source: CORINE 2000 data basis)
| Level 1 |
Level 3 |
Artificial surfaces
|
112 Discontinuous urban fabric
121 Industrial or commercial units
122 Road and rail networks and associated land
123 Port areas
124 Airports
131 Mineral extraction sites
132 Dump sites
133 Construction sites
141 Green urban areas
142 Sport and leisure facilities |
| Agricultural areas |
211 Non-irrigated arable land
212 Permanently irrigated land
213 Rice fields
221 Vineyards
222 Fruit trees and berry plantations
223 Olive groves
231 Pastures
241 Annual crops associated with permanent crops
242 Complex cultivation patterns
243 Land principally occupied by agriculture, with significant areas of natural vegetation
244 Agro-forestry areas |
| Forest and semi natural areas |
311 Broad-leaved forest
312 Coniferous forest
313 Mixed forest
321 Natural grasslands
322 Moors and heathland
323 Sclerophyllous vegetation
324 Transitional woodland-shrub
331 Beaches, dunes, sands plains
332 Bare rocks
333 Sparsely vegetated areas
334 Burnt areas
335 Glaciers and perpetual snow |
Wetlands
|
411 Inland marshes
412 Peat bogs
421 Salt marshes
422 Salines
423 Intertidal flats |
| Water bodies |
511 Water courses
512 Water bodies
521 Coastal lagoons
522 Estuaries
523 Seas and oceans |
|
| Data requirements |
Aerial photographs or remote sensing images are required to define land cover types. The existing vegetation maps of CORINE can be used to derive land cover maps in cropland regions. |
| Main applications in cropland, grazing and forests & shrubland regions |
Description of land cover can be useful in assessing the impacts of applied responses in cropland, grazing land and forests & shrubland regions. Many processes related to land degradation such as soil loss, deterioration of water quality and reduction in quantity and changes in the regional climate system are related to land cover change. An example is its use as input layer in the ESA model (Kostas et al. 1999), a commonly accepted model to assess desertification risk both at local and regional scale. The UNCCD has emphasized the importance of land cover as an indicator for assessing desertification risk of an area. |
| Strengths and weaknesses |
Land cover can be easily defined using the CORINE data basis at various periods. The derived maps requires validation by field observations since some discrepancy on the given land cover types can be observed. |
