Full description
Land cover is the observed physical cover on the Earth’s surface including trees, shrubs, grasses, soils, exposed rocks, water bodies, plantations, crops and built structures. A consistent, Australia-wide land cover product helps understanding of how the different parts of the environment change and inter-relate. Earth observation data recorded over a period of time firstly allows the observation of the state of land cover at a specific time and secondly the way that land cover changes by comparison between times. For more information please visit https://knowledge.dea.ga.gov.au/data/product/dea-land-cover-landsat.
The Land Cover product was made possible through a collaboration between Geoscience Australia, The University of New South Wales and Aberystwyth University.
Associated References include: Lucas R, Mueller N, Siggins A, Owers C, Clewley D, Bunting P, Kooymans C, Tissott B, Lewis B, Lymburner L, Metternicht G. Land Cover Mapping using Digital Earth Australia. Data. 2019; 4(4):143. https://doi.org/10.3390/data4040143, Christopher J. Owers, Richard M. Lucas, Daniel Clewley, Carole Planque, Suvarna Punalekar, Belle Tissott, Sean M. T. Chua, Pete Bunting, Norman Mueller & Graciela Metternicht (2021) Living Earth: Implementing national standardised land cover classification systems for Earth Observation in support of sustainable development, Big Earth Data, 5:3, 368-390, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/20964471.2021.1948179, Metternicht, G., Mueller, N., Lucas, R., Digital Earth for Sustainable Development Goals, Manual of Digital Earth, pp 443 - 471, Springer Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9915-3_13
Lineage
Maintenance and Update Frequency: annually
Statement:
The FAO LCCS taxonomy is hierarchical and consists of a dichotomous phase (Level 1 to 3) and a modular phase (referred to as Level 4). In Level 1, vegetated and non-vegetated areas are first separated. These are then divided into terrestrial or aquatic categories to form Level 2. In the vegetated terrestrial category, cultivated and natural (including semi-natural) areas are differentiated. The non-vegetated category is further divided into artificial surfaces, and natural surfaces incorporating low vegetation cover and bare areas. Including the non-vegetated aquatic class (from Level 2), this results in the creation of six base land cover categories.
At Level 4, vegetated areas are further classified using information that differentiates lifeform (woody and herbaceous) and quantifies vegetation cover percent and water seasonality (for Natural Aquatic Vegetation). Natural Surface areas have information added (bare gradation) which describes the level of remaining vegetation present (sparse, very sparse or not detectable). Non-vegetated aquatic areas (Water) are further described on the basis of their persistence (hydroperiod) over a calendar year. The FAO LCCS differentiates water in different physical states (liquid or frozen; ice or snow), however only liquid water is included in the current release.
Notes
PurposeDEA Land Cover provides annual land cover classifications for Australia using the Food and Agriculture Organisation Land Cover Classification System taxonomy Version 2 (Di Gregorio and Jansen, 1998; 2005). DEA Land Cover divides the landscape into six base land cover types, which are then further detailed in sub-classes. Annual Land Cover information can be used in a number of ways to support the monitoring and management of environments in Australia. These include, but are not limited to, environmental monitoring (ecosystem mapping, carbon dynamics, erosion management), agriculture (monitoring crop responses to water availability, understanding drought impact on vegetation), community interests (map urban expansion within Australia, mapping impacts of natural disasters, bushfire recovery).
Created: 05 12 2024
Issued: 03 04 2025
Data time period: 1988-01-01
text: westlimit=112.00; southlimit=-44.00; eastlimit=154.00; northlimit=-9.00; projection=GDA2020 / geographic 2D (EPSG: 7844)
Subjects
DEA – Digital Earth Australia |
EARTH SCIENCES |
Land and Vegetation |
geoscientificInformation |
land cover |
land use |
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Other Information
Link to Collection
uri :
https://data.dea.ga.gov.au/?prefix=derivative/ga_ls_landcover_class_cyear_3/
GA Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS Analysis Ready Data Collection 3
local : 132317
Geoscience Australia Landsat 9 OLI TIRS Analysis Ready Data Collection 3
local : 148693
GA Landsat 5 TM Analysis Ready Data Collection 3
local : 130853
GA Landsat 7 ETM+ Analysis Ready Data Collection 3
local : 132310
Geoscience Australia Landsat Water Observation Statistics Collection 3
local : 146091
Geoscience Australia Landsat Fractional Cover Collection 3
local : 145498
Geoscience Australia Mangrove Canopy Cover Collection 3
local : 145497
Geoscience Australia Landsat Tasseled Cap Percentiles Collection 3
local : 149765
DEPRECATED - National Intertidal Digital Elevation Model 25m 1.0.0
local : 123678
Geoscience Australia Landsat Fractional Cover Percentiles Collection 3
local : 145501
Identifiers
- global : 75ca7729-f883-48d2-ad74-7cb60f140a53
- Local : pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/149976
- DOI : 10.26186/149976
