[Sdi-northamerica] New global initiative to track changes in land cover and use

[Kate Lance]

http://www.doi.gov/news/pressreleases/United-States-Launches-New-Global-Initiative-to-Track-Changes-in-Land-Cover-and-Use-Data-Sharing-Will-Assist-Land-Managers-Worldwide.cfm
 
http://www.doi.gov/news/doinews/US-Launches-Initiatives-to-Share-Climate-Science-Data.cfm
 
United States launches new global initiative to track changes in land cover and 
use
Deputy Secretary of the Interior David J. Hayes, co-leading the U.S. delegation 
to the 2010 Group on Earth Observations (GEO) summit, announced that the United 
States is launching a new global initiative aimed at developing the first-ever 
comprehensive and up-to-date database of 30-meter satellite imagery that will 
show changes in land cover and land uses worldwide. 

“The Global Land-Cover Data Initiative aims to provide land-managers, 
decision-makers and communities around the globe with critical information about 
changes to land use and land cover,” Hayes told the delegates from 85 countries 
and the European Commission at the intergovernmental GEO VII Ministerial Summit 
meeting in Beijing. “This type of sharing of data and technology can help us 
make wise decision about how best to build a sustainable future, protect our 
environment, and tackle challenges like pollution and climate change,” he said.
More than 80 percent of the imagery for the Global Land-Cover Data Initiative 
can be obtained with Landsat, a satellite program operated by Interior’s U.S. 
Geological Survey in cooperation with NASA. Hayes asked international partners 
at the GEO summit to assist with developing the remaining information that would 
be needed for a comprehensive global land-cover database.
Today’s announcement of the Global Land-Cover Data Initiative follows the 
announcement on Wednesday of SilvaCarbon, a separate U.S. initiative designed to 
strengthen global capacity to understand, monitor, and manage forest and 
terrestrial carbon. (See  U.S. Unveils Initiative to Monitor and Manage Forest 
Carbon Dynamics, 
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/11/03/us-unveils-initiative-monitor-and-manage-forest-carbon-dynamics;
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/ostp-silvacarbon-release.pdf) 
  [SilvaCarbon will bring together a community of U.S. scientists and technical 
experts from government, academia, non-governmental organizations, and industry 
into a network that will support efforts to improve access to Earth observation 
data about forests.  It is a key element in the Administration’s comprehensive 
strategy for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and 
enhancing forest carbon stocks in developing countries.]
"These investments in the science will promote a better understanding not only 
of the changes in land cover, but also of the effectiveness of various efforts 
to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from land use change,” Abbott noted. “They 
can thus help promote transparency in national and international mitigation 
actions in this critical sector, and strengthen multilateral efforts to combat 
climate change as they inform countries on the best ways to design and improve 
such policies going forward.” 

Although moderate- resolution global land cover initiatives have been underway 
for some time and have provided important synoptic global land-cover data, the 
proposed initiative is based on the fact that higher-resolution (30m) global 
land cover datasets would permit detection of land change at the scale of most 
human activity--where change most commonly occurs--and would increase 
flexibility in environmental modeling. The higher resolution thus is 
particularly important for studies of ecosystem fragmentation and degradation 
and ultimately will improve the comparability of assessments conducted across 
the globe.
The 30-meter resolution will produce several land-cover data products for the 
international community. The first set of products will describe the Earth’s 
land cover conditions as of 2010, and will include:
1.A 2010 global land-cover characteristics baseline providing quantitative 
measures of six major land-cover characteristics-- percent tree, shrub, 
herbaceous, surface water and wetness, snow/ice, or barren land-cover. This 
should be completed by December 2012.
2.A 2010 global map of land-cover and land-use types—such as such as urban and 
built-up areas, agriculture, forests, grasslands, shrublands, water bodies, 
wetlands, snow and ice, and barren areas-- using the United Nations Food and 
Agriculture Organization classification system. This global layer should be 
completed by December 2013.
Once the baselines are established, it is envisioned that the land-cover 
characteristics product will be updated annually and the land-cover-type map 
every five years.



      
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