Glob Cover
Introduction
GlobCover is an ESA initiative which began in 2005 in partnership with JRC, EEA, FAO, UNEP, GOFC-GOLD and IGBP. The aim of the project was to develop a service capable of delivering global composites and land cover maps using as input observations from the 300m MERIS sensor on board the ENVISAT satellite mission. ESA makes available the land cover maps, which cover 2 periods: December 2004 - June 2006 and January - December 2009. See more at: http://due.esrin.esa.int/globcover/
Coverage
This dataset has a global coverage. It is based on a 1 km x 1 km grid, so note that such a resolution is too coarse for micro-scale AEP calculation models! These data are the version 2.0 of the global land cover characteristics data base, see USGS web site for further details.
Legends
Various legends exist for this dataset. At EMD, we use the legend from the US Geological Survey, see the table below. In addition to the legend, we (EMD) also suggested a roughness length, z0. This length is shown in the last column of the table.
| ID | Land Cover Type | EMD Roughness Class |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Urban and Built-Up Land | z0=0.400 |
| 2 | Dryland Cropland and Pasture | z0=0.100 |
| 3 | Irrigated Cropland and Pasture | z0=0.100 |
| 4 | Mixed Dryland/Irrigated Cropland and Pasture | z0=0.100 |
| 5 | Cropland/Grassland Mosaic | z0=0.070 |
| 6 | Cropland/Woodland Mosaic | z0=0.150 |
| 7 | Grassland | z0=0.050 |
| 8 | Shrubland | z0=0.070 |
| 9 | Mixed Shrubland/Grassland | z0=0.060 |
| 10 | Savanna | z0=0.070 |
| 11 | Deciduous Broadleaf Forest | z0=0.400 |
| 12 | Deciduous Needleleaf Forest | z0=0.400 |
| 13 | Evergreen Broadleaf Forest | z0=0.500 |
| 14 | Evergreen Needleleaf Forest | z0=0.500 |
| 15 | Mixed Forest | z0=0.400 |
| 16 | Water Bodies | z0=0.0002 |
| 17 | Herbaceous Wetland | z0=0.030 |
| 18 | Wooded Wetland | z0=0.100 |
| 19 | Barren or Sparsely Vegetated | z0=0.020 |
| 20 | Herbaceous Tundra | z0=0.050 |
| 21 | Wooded Tundra | z0=0.150 |
| 22 | Mixed Tundra | z0=0.100 |
| 23 | Bare Ground Tundra | z0=0.030 |
| 24 | Snow or Ice | z0=0.001 |
License and Acknowledgement
This dataset is in the US Public Domain. USGS only asks that proper credit is given while using this dataset. A suggested format is to write:
Credit: U.S. Geological Survey.
External Link
Global Land Cover Characteristics Data Base Version 2.0, available at: http://edc2.usgs.gov/glcc/glcc.php (2013).