Harmonized Pan European time series for monitoring soil sealing

The European Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS) has been producing datasets on im-perviousness every 3 years since 2006. However, for 2018, the input for the production of the im-perviousness dataset was switched from mixed inputs to the Sentinel constellation. While this led to an improvement in the spatial detail from 20 m to 10 m, this also resulted in a break in the time series as the 2018 update was not comparable to the previous reference years. In addition, the European CLMS has been producing a new dataset from 2018 onward entitled CLC+ Back Bone which also include a sealed area thematic class. When comparing both datasets with sampled reference data, it appears that the imperviousness dataset substantially underestimates sealed areas at European level. However, the CLC+ dataset is only available from 2018 and currently does not include any change layer. To address these issues, a harmonized continental soil sealing combined dataset for Europe was produced for the entire observation period. This new dataset has been validated to be the best current dataset for monitoring soil sealing as a direct input for European policies with an estimated total sealed area of 175,664km² over Europe and an increase of sealed areas of 1297km² or 0.7% between 2015 and 2018 which is comparable to previous time periods. Finally, recommen-dations for future updates and validation of imperviousness degree geospatial products are given.

SANNIER Christophe;  IVITS Eva;  MAUCHA Gergely;  MAES Joachim;  DIJKSTRA Lewis; 

2024-11-25

MULTIDISCIPLINARY DIGITAL PUBLISHING INSTITUTE (MDPI)

JRC138885

2073-445X (online),   

https://doi.org/10.3390/land13071087,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC138885,   

10.3390/land13071087 (online),