The Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS) has just released an outstanding series of new High-Resolution Layers (HRLs) on the themes Croplands, Tree Cover & Forests and Grassland for the reference years 2017-2021. This leap forwards provides a continuation of and improvement on the original HRLs, which were introduced more than a decade ago, while also filling a long-standing gap in the CLMS on crops and agricultural practices.
The updated HRLs now provide annual status layers with a spatial resolution of 10m, detailing tree cover density and leaf type, crop type and the presence of temporary and permanent grassland, with full coverage for all 38 countries under the umbrella of the European Environment Agency (EEA). This is complemented for the first time by a comprehensive suite of annual layers on the timing and extent of agricultural practices such as grassland mowing, harvesting, secondary crops and fallow land. The previously existing 3-yearly layers on tree cover changes and grassland changes have been updated to the reference period 2018-2021.
Since the award of the production contract by EEA, GAF has been leading a consortium with its partners GeoVille and VITO. The consortium has managed all the required stages – from prototyping and testing to operational roll outs.
While the publication of the first 5 reference years marks a major milestone, there is still more to come: Production of the reference years 2022 and 2023 is at an advanced stage and delivery will take place in the coming months. Additionally, production for the 2024 reference year and complete processing of all layers for the UK from 2017-2024 was initiated in early April 2025 and production is already underway.
Copyright: prepared using European Union’s Copernicus Land Monitoring Service information
