This metadata refers to the 'Corine Land Cover Plus Backbone' (CLCplus Backbone), a spatially detailed, large-scale, Earth Observation-based land cover inventory which is produced by the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS). The CLCplus Backbone vector is a land cover map that contains vector polygon geometries (minimum mapping unit: 0.5 ha; minimum mapping width: 20 m) and is based on Sentinel satellite time series and a combination of existing reference datasets for geometries containing transportation and hydrological networks. Each polygon represents aggregated landscape objects and contains their dominant land cover among the 18 basic land cover classes. See polygon class codes in the additional information section. In addition, polygons are enriched with land cover fractions from the CLCplus Backbone raster as well as aggregated attributes based on other CLMS and Copernicus products (e.g. topography). CLCplus Backbone vector is an independent product and its thematic and geometric contents differ from CLCplus Backbone raster and Corine Land Cover. The CLCplus Backbone vector is available for the 2018 reference year.

This metadata refers to the Corine Land Cover plus Backbone (CLCplus Backbone), a spatially detailed, large-scale, Earth Observation-based land cover inventory which is produced by the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS). The CLCplus Backbone is a high-resolution raster land cover map based on Sentinel-2 satellite time series. Each 10m-pixel contains the dominant land cover among the 11 basic land cover classes. See pixel class codes in the 'Additional Information' section below. The product is available from the 2018 reference year, with a first update produced for the 2021 reference year and moved to an update cycle of 2 years from 2021 onwards.

This metadata refers to the CORINE Land Cover Plus Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry Instance (CLCplus LULUCF Instance), an annually updated, pan-European, spatially consistent and seamless geospatial proxy for land use reporting under the LULUCF regulation. The product is delivered as a single raster layer with a spatial resolution of 100 m, derived from multiple pan-European Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS) high resolution input datasets. The LULUCF Instance is available for the reference years 2018, 2021, 2022 and 2023, with production moving to an annual update cycle starting from the 2021 product. Each raster cell represents a dominant LULUCF land-use class, assigned according to thematic and spatial rulesets implemented during the extraction process. While each pixel corresponds primarily to one of the six main LULUCF land use categories - forest land, grassland, cropland, settlements, wetlands, and other lands - the dataset further differentiates these categories into sub classes, resulting in a total of 27 classes. This classification structure supports greenhouse gas reporting and other applications within the LULUCF sector by providing a harmonised and policy relevant representation of land use across Europe. It is crucial to understand that this product is fundamentally different from other CLMS products, as it is not based directly on satellite image classification or visual interpretation. Instead, it is produced through the combination and integration of existing CLMS data layers. Consequently, the dataset does not introduce fundamentally new information; rather, its novelty lies in the expert driven integration of multiple sources to produce a LULUCF oriented land use representation.

The Copernicus High Resolution Forest Layer Tree Cover Change Mask (TCCM) 2015-2018 raster product provides information on the change between the reference years 2015 and 2018 and consists of 4 thematic classes (unchanged areas with no tree cover / new tree cover / loss of tree cover / unchanged areas with tree cover) at 20m spatial resolution and covers EEA38 area and the United Kingdom. The production of the High Resolution Forest layers was coordinated by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in the frame of the EU Copernicus programme. The High Resolution Forest product consists of three types of (status) products and additional change products. The status products are available for the 2012, 2015 and 2018 reference years: 1. Tree cover density providing level of tree cover density in a range from 0-100%; 2. Dominant leaf type providing information on the dominant leaf type: broadleaved or coniferous; 3. A Forest type product. The forest type product allows to get as close as possible to the FAO forest definition. In its original (20m) resolution it consists of two products: 1) a dominant leaf type product that has a MMU of 0.5 ha, as well as a 10% tree cover density threshold applied, and 2) a support layer that maps, based on the dominant leaf type product, trees under agricultural use and in urban context (derived from CLC and high resolution imperviousness 2009 data). For the final 100m product trees under agricultural use and urban context from the support layer are removed.

This metadata refer to the 'Corine Land Cover plus Backbone' (CLCplus Backbone) which is a spatially detailed, large scale, Earth Observation-based land cover inventory. The CLCplus Backbone Raster Product is a 10m pixel-based land cover map based on Sentinel satellite time series from July 2017 to June 2019. For each pixel it shows the dominant land cover among the 11 basic land cover classes. The product has a three years update cycle and is available for the 2018 reference year.

The Copernicus High Resolution Forest Layer Tree Cover Change Mask (TCCM) 2012-2015 raster product provides information on the change between the reference years 2012 and 2015 and consists of 4 thematic classes (unchanged areas with no tree cover / new tree cover / loss of tree cover / unchanged areas with tree cover) at 20m spatial resolution and covers EEA38 area and the United Kingdom. The production of the High Resolution Forest layers was coordinated by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in the frame of the EU Copernicus programme. The High Resolution Forest product consists of three types of (status) products and additional change products. The status products are available for the 2012, 2015 and 2018 reference years: 1. Tree cover density providing level of tree cover density in a range from 0-100%; 2. Dominant leaf type providing information on the dominant leaf type: broadleaved or coniferous; 3. A Forest type product. The forest type product allows to get as close as possible to the FAO forest definition. In its original (20m) resolution it consists of two products: 1) a dominant leaf type product that has a MMU of 0.5 ha, as well as a 10% tree cover density threshold applied, and 2) a support layer that maps, based on the dominant leaf type product, trees under agricultural use and in urban context (derived from CLC and high resolution imperviousness 2009 data). For the final 100m product trees under agricultural use and urban context from the support layer are removed.

The Woody Vegetation Layer is a new product that aims at providing information about presence or absence of woody vegetation of any type across Europe without any differentiation of height, size or nature and without masking forested areas. It includes isolated trees or permanent crops such as orchards. This helps users understand the distribution of these features across different regions and provide an “all tree layer” that users can use to derive their own application. The production of the HRL Small Landscape Features is coordinated by EEA in the frame of Copernicus, the Earth observation component of the European Union’s Space programme. The product is a raster dataset with 5-meter grid spacing (spatial resolution), distributed as 100 x 100 km tiles that are fully conformant with the EEA reference grid.

The High Resolution Layer (HRL) Grassland Change 2015-2018 raster product at 20m resolution provides information on changes in grassland vegetation cover between the reference years 2015 and 2018. The thematic classes indicate all non-grassland areas, grassland gain and grassland loss, unchanged grassland in both years and unverified grassland gain and loss areas for the pan-European area of EEA38 and the United Kingdom. The production of the High Resolution grassland layers was coordinated by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in the frame of the EU Copernicus programme. This dataset is provided as 20 meter rasters in 100 x 100 km tiles grouped according to the EEA38 countries and the United Kingdom (fully conformant with the EEA reference grid). The HRL Grassland layer is the main High Resolution grassland product. This grassy and non-woody vegetation baseline product includes all kinds of grasslands: managed grassland, semi-natural grassland and natural grassy vegetation. It is a binary status layer for the 2015 reference year mapping grassland and all non-grassland areas in 20m and (aggregated) 100m pixel size and, for the 2018 reference year, in 10m and (aggregated) 100m pixel size.

Riparian zones represent transitional areas occurring between land and freshwater ecosystems, characterised by distinctive hydrology, soil and biotic conditions and strongly influenced by the stream water. They provide a wide range of riparian functions (e.g. chemical filtration, flood control, bank stabilization, aquatic life and riparian wildlife support, etc.) and ecosystem services. The Riparian Zones products support the objectives of several European legal acts and policy initiatives, such as the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020, the Habitats and Birds Directives and the Water Framework Directive. This metadata refers to the Riparian Zones 2012 Land Cover/Land Use (LC/LU), which LC/LU classification is tailored to the needs of biodiversity monitoring in a variable buffer zone of selected rivers (Strahler levels 2-9 derived from EU-Hydro) for the reference year 2012. LC/LU is extracted from Very High Resolution (VHR) satellite data and other available data in a buffer zone of selected rivers for supporting biodiversity monitoring and mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services. The class definitions follow the pre-defined nomenclature on the basis of Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES) typology of ecosystems (Level 1 to Level 4) and CORINE Land Cover. The classification provides 55 distinct thematic classes with a Minimum Mapping Unit (MMU) of 0.5 ha and a Minimum Mapping Width (MMW) of 10 m. The nomenclature has been revised in 2020 with the aim to harmonize the products of the local components (mainly Riparian Zones and NATURA 2000 products) while maintaining user requirements for both products. A revised version of the Riparian Zones 2012 has been subsequently released in December 2021, together with the reference year 2018. The production of the Riparian Zones products was coordinated by the European Environment Agency in the frame of the EU Copernicus programme.

The Imperviousness Change (IMDC) 2021-2024 layer is part of the High Resolution Layer (HRL) Imperviousness. It contains the imperviousness change per pixel (increase or decrease in percentage) as derived from the difference between the Imperviousness Density (IMD) status layers for the reference years 2021 and 2024, in an aggregated version of 100m spatial resolution. The production of the HRL Imperviousness is coordinated by EEA in the frame of Copernicus, the Earth observation component of the European Union’s Space programme. The product is a raster dataset with 100-meter grid spacing (spatial resolution) that covers the 38 Eionet member and cooperating countries as well as the United Kingdom (i.e. EEA38+UK). It is distributed as 100 x 100 km tiles that are fully conformant with the EEA reference grid.