Generating time-series maps that accurately reflect land change area: A strategy for global land monitoring

Principal Investigator:

Matthew Hansen

Peter Potapov

CO Investigators:

Xiao-Peng Song

Alexandra (Sasha) Tyukavina

Sponsor:

Time period:

2018

2022

Researchers:

Andrés Hernández Serna

Project Description:

Remote sensing scientists have employed the free and open Landsat archive to produce pathfinding global-scale data sets characterizing both land cover extent and change. Here, we propose a method to consistently characterize annual time-series of global percent tree canopy and bare ground cover, and surface water extent. We will combine indirect post-characterization comparison and direct change detection methods to map land changes. Area estimates of loss and gain for each theme will be made from stratified probability-based samples. The sample-based area estimates will then be used to adjust the map products. Per pixel adjustments using fuzzy logic will enable the matching of total area of mapped change with the sample-based area estimates. In so doing, we will ensure that annual land cover extent maps are consistent with inter-annual land cover change.

Related Publications:

Radeloff, V. C., Roy, D. P., Wulder, M. A., Anderson, M., Cook, B., Crawford, C. J., ... Hansen, M. C.... & Zhu, Z. (2024). Need and vision for global medium-resolution Landsat and Sentinel-2 data products. Remote Sensing of Environment, 300, 113918.

Turubanova, S., Potapov, P., Hansen, M. C., Li, X., Tyukavina, A., Pickens, A. H., Hernandez-Serna, ... & Stolle, F. (2023). Tree canopy extent and height change in Europe, 2001–2021, quantified using Landsat data archive. Remote Sensing of Environment, 298, 113797.

Potapov, P., Hansen, M. C., Turubanova, S., Tyukavina, A., Zalles, V., Song, X. P., & Khan, A. (2023). Reply to: Measuring the world’s cropland area. Nature Food, 4(1), 33-34.

Song, X. P. (2023). The future of global land change monitoring. International Journal of Digital Earth, 16(1), 2279-2300.

Potapov, P., Turubanova, S., Hansen, M.C., Tyukavina, A., Zalles, V., Khan, A., Song, X-P, Pickens, A., Shen, Q., Cortez, J. (2022) Global maps of cropland extent and change show accelerated cropland expansion in the twenty-first century. Nature Food, 3, 19-28

Potapov, P., Hansen, M.C., Pickens, A., Hernandez-Serna, A., Tyukavina, A., Turubanova, S., Zalles, V., Li, X., Khan, A., Stolle, F., Harris, N., Song, X-P, Baggett, A., Kommareddy, I., Kommareddy, A. (2022) The global 2000-2020 land cover and land use change dataset derived from the Landsat archive: first results. Frontiers in Remote Sensing

Wulder, M. A., Roy, D. P., Radeloff, V. C., Loveland, T. R., Anderson, M. C., Johnson, D. M., ... Hansen, M.C., ..., Cook, B. D. (2022). Fifty years of Landsat science and impacts. Remote Sensing of Environment, 280, 113195.

Potapov, P., Hansen, M.C., Kommareddy, I., Kommareddy, A., Turubanova, S., Pickens, A., Adusei, B., Tyukavina, A., Ying, Q. (2020) Landsat Analysis Ready Data for Global Land Cover and Land Cover Change Mapping. Remote Sensing, 12(3), 426.

Hakimdavar, R., Hubbard, A., Policelli, F., Pickens, A., Hansen, M., Fatoyinbo, T., Lagomasino, D., Pahlevan, N., Unninayar, S., Kavvada, A., Carroll, M., Smith, B., Hurwitz, M., Wood, D., Schollaert Uz, S. (2020) Monitoring Water-Related Ecosystems with Earth Observation Data in Support of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 Reporting. Remote Sensing, 12(10), 1634.