The Global Land Cover Characterization Project was established to meet science data requirements identified by the International Geosphere and Biosphere Programme (IGBP), and the U. S. Global Change Research Program. The overall goal is to produce flexible large-area land cover databases to meet evolving requirements of the earth science research community.

The project was implemented by the United States Geological Survey/EROS Data Center (EDC), the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), and the Joint Research (JRC) of European Commission. This effort is part of the National Aeronautic's and Space Administration (NASA) Earth Observing System Pathfinder Program. Funding for the project was provided by the USGS, NASA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) , U.S. Forest Service (USFS) , and the United Nations Environment Programme . The data base has been adopted by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme Data and Information System office (IGBP-DIS) to fill its requirement for a global 1-km land cover data set.

View the GLCC layer in Google earth interface.

Biodiversity Characterization and Dynamics of North America

In recent decades, we have observed increasing land cover and land use change and accelerating rates of biodiversity loss across the North America resulting in important ecosystem and societal consequences. Such losses and consequences are not distributed evenly. It is, therefore, critical that we understand spatial distribution and dynamics of biodiversity resources of the region. The U. S. Geological Survey EROS Data Center has been conducting biodiversity characterization research by utilizing recently available MODIS-500m, Landsat, and field inventory data. The main objective of the project is to generate accurate and up-to-date information on the remaining habitat, the biophysical condition, the extent and scale of habitat fragmentation, the major threats, and the changes likely to occur in the future under various global climate change scenarios. The project is being jointly implemented by the EROS Data Center, and the Duke University.

The project aims to deliver, (i) land cover characterization database of North America based on MODIS-500m data (ii) improved land cover classification system suitable for conservation community that can be used with MODIS-500m data, (iii) a methodology to delineate the most important conservation areas within selected priority conservation areas, (iv) measure of forest fragmentation presented in the form of maps and ancillary data, (v) maps and associated database of forest habitats and major ecosystems change under projected global climate change scenarios, and (vi) identification of species, ecosystems, and habitats most affected by future climate change.

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Global Land Cover 2000 for North America

The Global Land Cover 2000 (GLC-2000) Project aims to produce a harmonized land cover database of the world for the year 2000 using SPOT VEGETATION Data. The Joint Research Center (JRC) of European Commission (EC) has been implementing the project in collaboration with over 40 partner institutions around the world. In North America, EDC and the Canada Center for Remote Sensing (CCRS) analyzed the data for Canada, United States of America (lower 48 states and Alaska), Mexico, and Central American and Caribbean countries. This land cover database of North America serves as an input to the GLC-2000 global database being aggregated by the JRC. For a FREE copy of this poster, please contact: Chandra Giri SAIC/EROS Data Center 47914 252nd Street Sioux Falls, SD 57198-0001 Telephone: Fax: Email: 605-594-2835 605-594-6529 cgiri@usgs.gov

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Forest Resources Assessment 2000

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), at the request of its member nations and the world community, has regularly reported on the state, changes and conditions of the world's forests about every 10 years. The present survey, known as the Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA 2000), provides crucial information describing the state and conditions of forest resources for the year 2000, and their changes over the last 20 years. The Global Forest Map created by EDC is one of the many outputs produced by FRA 2000. The forest map was produced from the Global Land Cover Characteristics (GLCC) Database, a land cover dataset at one-kilometer resolution derived from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) satellite images.