Freely available sources of Digital Land Use data

Freely available sources of Digital Land Use data

CORINE Land Cover 2018 (vector/raster 100 m), Europe, 6-yearly

 Corine Land Cover (CLC) 2018 is available at web page (CORINE Land Cover 2018 (vector/raster 100 m), Europe, 6-yearly ).

CLC raster and vector data are available for user download (free of charge), but it requires that the person register / has EU account (for accessing EU documents).

Currently it is available to download Layer “U2018_CLC2018_V2020_20u1” which is version 2020 20u1 (dated 02/2020): First Update of Version 20. Data covers continental Europe (U2018_CLC2018_V2020_20u1).

 In this version it is also possible to download data for Frech DOM  Overseas France (French: France d'outre-mer, which consists of 13 French territories outside Europe.

 

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Map view of CLC land cover raster data

CLC data raster data is of 100 m x 100 m precision and it is stored as geo coded TIFF file. File is quite big, and it is not separated in 1 deg x 1 deg tiles (as usual terrain data), but all is contained within one file. Reference coordinate system for data is EPSG:3035 which is Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area cartesian system in meters. Consequentially, for SEAMCAT use, data would need to be converted internally to ESPG 4326 WGS84 Lon Lat system.

Some more information on Corine CLC data:

  •  File format: geoTIFF *.tif

  • Size: 242.18 MB

  • Extent  900000.000,900000.000 : 7400000.000,5500000.000

  • Width   65000

  • Height  46000

  • Data type        Byte - Eight bit unsigned integer

  • Dimensions     X: 65000 Y: 46000 Bands: 1

  • Origin  900000,5.5e+06

  • Pixel Size        100,-100

  • Coordinate Resolution: 100 meters

  • Data Sources: Photointerpretation of satellite images by the national teams of the participating countries

  • Coordinate system name       EPSG[1]:3035 - ETRS89-extended / LAEA Europe

  • Coordinate Units         meters

  • Projection Method       Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area

For each coordinate one of 45 categories of DLU is assigned to it. 

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Classification of different land cover for Corine database

Classification of different land cover for Corine database is detailed in the following CLC2018 Nomenclature Guide:https://land.copernicus.eu/content/corine-land-cover-nomenclature-guidelines/docs/pdf/CLC2018_Nomenclature_illustrated_guide_20190510.pdf


[1] EPSG Geodetic Parameter Dataset contains definitions of coordinate reference systems and coordinate transformations which may be global, regional, national or local in application. It is maintained by the Geodesy Subcommittee of the IOGP Geomatics Committee.