Urban Atlas: land cover data
- The text on this page is taken from an equivalent page of the IEHIAS-project.
The Urban Atlas provides digital land cover data for large urban settlements (with a population of more than 100,000) in the EU, as a basis for monitoring and managing urban development and land use change. It has been developed to resolve the limited discrimination of urban areas given by most traditional land cover datasets, based on satellite data, ehich have focused on rural areas - on (semi-) natural vegetation cover, forestry and agricultural land use.
Ultimately, over 300 urban areas will be covered; currently data for 228 have been completed. Mapping is based on analysis of thousands of satellite images and data are presented at a 1:10,000 scale, with a minimum mapping unit area of 0.25 ha for urban land classes and 1 ha for non-urban classes. The classification has four levels and recognises a total of 27 land cover classes, of which three (top-level classes) are non-urban (see Table below). Overall classification accuracy is estimated to be 80%. A mapping guide is available describing the land cover classification and analytical methodology.
Data are provided as raster files, in ESRI format - one for each urban area. Vector data are also available on request.
| Level 1 | Land cover class | Level 2 | Land cover class | Level 3 | Land cover class | Level 4 | Land cover class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Artificial surfaces | 1.1 | Urban fabric | 1.1.1 | Continuous urban fabric | ||
| 1.1.2 | Discontinuous ubran fabric | 1.1.2.1 | Discontinuous dense ubran fabric | ||||
| 1.1.2.2 | Discontinuous medium fabric ubran fabric | ||||||
| 1.1.2.3 | Discontinuous low density ubran fabric | ||||||
| 1.1.2.4 | Discontinuous very low density ubran fabric | ||||||
| 1.1.3 | Isolated structures | ||||||
| 1.2 | Industrial, commercial, public, military, private and transport units | 1.2.1 | Industrial, commercial, public, military and private units | ||||
| 1.2.2 | Road and rail network and associated land | 1.2.2.1 | Fast transit roads and associated land | ||||
| 1.2.2.2 | Other roads and associated land | ||||||
| 1.2.2.3 | Railways and associated land | ||||||
| 1.2.3 | Port areas | ||||||
| 1.2.4 | Airports | ||||||
| 1.3 | Mine, dump and construction sites | 1.3.1 | Mineral extraction and dump sites | ||||
| 1.3.3 | Continuous sites | ||||||
| 1.3.4 | Land without current use | ||||||
| 1.4 | Artificial non-agricultal vegetated surfaces | 1.4.1 | Green urban areas | ||||
| 1.4.2 | Sports and leisure facilities | ||||||
| 2 | Agricultural areas, semi-natural areas and wetlands | ||||||
| 3 | Forests | ||||||
| 4 | Water |