A land cover map of South America.

• Autor(a) principal: EVA, H. D.
• Data de Publicação: 2004
• Outros Autores: BELWARD, A. D., MIRANDA, E. E. de, DI BELLA, C. M., GONDS, V., HUBER, O., JONES, S., SGRENZAROLI, M., FRITZ, S.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da EMBRAPA (Repository Open Access to Scientific Information from EMBRAPA - Alice)
• Texto Completo: http://www.alice.cnptia.embrapa.br/alice/handle/doc/17218
• topic: Mapping; Vegetation classes; Amazonia; Ecosystems; Land cover; South America

A digital land cover map of South America has been produced using remotely sensed satellite data acquired between 1995 and the year 2000. The mapping scale is defined by the 1 km spatial resolution of the map grid-cell. In order to realize the product, different sources of satellite data were used, each source providing either a particular parameter of land cover characteristic required by the legend, or mapping a particular land cover class. The map legend is designed both to fit requirements for regional climate modelling and for studies on land cover change. The legend is also compatible with a wider, global, land cover mapping exercise, which seeks to characterize the world?s land surface for the year 2000. As a first step, the humid forest domain has been validated using a sample of high-resolution satellite images. The map demonstrates both the major incursions of agriculture into the remaining forest domains and the extensive areas of agriculture, which now dominate South America?s grasslands.