ISLSCP II -- UMD Land Cover

ISLSCP Initiative II

Related Pages
ISLSCP Initiative II Home General Data Overview Vegetation Data Overview

Vegetation Data

University of Maryland Global Land Cover Classifications

The objective of this study was to create a land cover map derived from 1 kilometer AVHRR data using all available bands and derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and a full year of data (April 1992-March 1993). This thematic map was resampled to 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0 degree grids for ISLSCP II. During this re-processing, the original UMD land cover type and fraction maps were adjusted to match the water/land fraction of the ISLSCP II land/water mask. These maps were generated for use by modelers of global biogeochemical cycles and others in need of an internally consistent, global depiction of land cover. This 1km map was also one of the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) at-launch land cover maps.
The data set describes the geographic distributions of 13 classes of vegetation cover (plus water and unclassified classes) based on a modified International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) legend (Rasool 1992). The data set also provides the fraction of each of the 15 classes within the coarser resolution cells. The data set is provided at three spatial resolutions of 0.25, 0.5 and 1 degrees in latitude and longitude. We refer the reader to the reference below for more information on data processing of the original 1km data set.

Data Provider: Ruth DeFries and Matt Hansen

Click to access data
Data Files
(ISLSCP II Disc #1)
Data Set
Documentation
Image Viewing
Tutorial

File Information

All of the files in the ISLSCP Initiative II data collection are in the ASCII, or text format. The file format consists of numerical fields of varying length, which are delimited by a single space and arranged in columns and rows. The values in the land cover class type files are written as integers from 0 to 14. All values in the land cover fraction files are written as real numbers.
The files at different spatial resolutions each contain the following numbers of columns and rows:

One degree: 360 columns by 180 rows
1/2 degree: 720 columns by 360 rows
1/4 degree: 1440 columns by 720 rows

All files are gridded to a common equal-angle lat/long grid, where the coordinates of the upper left corner of the files are located at 180°W, 90°N and the lower right corner coordinates are located at 180°E, 90°S. Data in the files are ordered from North to South and from West to East beginning at 180 degrees West and 90 degrees North.
The data files are PKZip compressed. On UNIX, they can be decompressed using the "unzip -a" command. On Windows, they can be decompressed using WinZip or other PKZip software. On the Macintosh, they can be decompressed using Stuffit Expander.

Land Cover Type Codes and Definitions

Value Description

0 Water Bodies

1 Evergreen Needleleaf Forests

2 Evergreen Broadleaf Forests

3 Deciduous Needleleaf Forest

4 Deciduous Broadleaf Forests

5 Mixed Forests

6 Woodlands

7 Wooded Grasslands/Shrublands

8 Closed Bushlands or Shrublands

9 Open Shrubland

10 Grasslands

11 Croplands

12 Barren

13 Urban and Builtup

14 Unclassified

Land Cover Type Codes and Definitions
Value	Description
0	Water Bodies
1	Evergreen Needleleaf Forests
2	Evergreen Broadleaf Forests
3	Deciduous Needleleaf Forest
4	Deciduous Broadleaf Forests
5	Mixed Forests
6	Woodlands
7	Wooded Grasslands/Shrublands
8	Closed Bushlands or Shrublands
9	Open Shrubland
10	Grasslands
11	Croplands
12	Barren
13	Urban and Builtup
14	Unclassified

Related Pages:
ISLSCP Initiative II Home
General Data Overview
Vegetation Data Overview
UMD Land Cover Data

Revision Date: April 2, 2003