Compilation and Assessment of Pan-European Land Cover Changes

Land cover is changing in many parts of Europe at an increasing rate. The knowledge on these land cover changes is important for spatial planning, resource evaluation, ecological modelling etc. Modification of ecosystems is most visible through changing land cover. Furthermore, spatio-temporal models that describe and predict land cover change due to social and economic processes need reliable information on land cover changes in order to calibrate and validate these models (Kaufman and Seto, 2001). Against this background three new Pan-European land cover databases were created for the years 1960, 1990 and 2000. The main objective of this paper is the compilation of land cover databases for Pan-Europe and the assessment of land cover changes. The main data source of the land cover databases for the years 1990 and 2000 are the CORINE Land Cover databases (CLC1990 and CLC2000) (Heyman et al., 1994, Nunes de lima, 2005). The CLC databases were extended to Pan-Europe with national land cover databases (Switzerland and Norway), GLC2000 and PELCOM data. The thematic detail of these databases is CORINE level 3 nomenclature and the spatial resolution is 100m. The Pan-European land cover database for the year 1960 (HISLU60) is based on digital processing of data from the World Atlas of Agriculture (WAA, 1969). This database helps to better understand the major land cover changes in Europe over a longer time-span. Several thematic and spatial aggregations facilitate the comparison of the databases at various scales. The aim of the paper is a) to present the compilation of Pan-European land cover databases for 1960, 1990 and 2000, b) to provide an assessment on land cover changes between the years 1960-1990 and 1990-2000, and c) to give an idea on the accuracy and reliability of those changes