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 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 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 Water and Wetness (WAW) 2015 layer is a thematic product showing the occurrence of water and wet surfaces over the period from 2009 to 2015 for the EEA38 area and the United Kingdom . This metadata corresponds to the aggregation of the 20m classified product into a 100m raster. The production of the High Resolution Water and Wetness layers was coordinated by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in the frame of the EU Copernicus programme. Two WAW products are available: - The main Water and Wetness (WAW) product, with defined classes of (1) permanent water, (2) temporary water, (3) permanent wetness and (4) temporary wetness. - The additional expert product: Water and Wetness Probability Index (WWPI). The products show the occurrence of water and indicate the degree of wetness in a physical sense, assessed independently of the actual vegetation cover and are thus not limited to a specific land cover class and their relative frequencies. Data is provided as a mosaic of the full area, and as tiles with a side length of 1000 km x 1000 km. In 2020, due to methodological improvements, the temporary wet class has been reprocessed during the update for the 2018 reference year.

The Imperviousness Change (IMDC) 2018-2021 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 2018 and 2021, 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.

Urban Atlas Land Cover/Land Use Change 2018-2021 provides reliable, inter-comparable, high-resolution land use and land cover change data for 764 Functional Urban Areas (FUA) with more than 50,000 inhabitants for the 2021 reference year in EEA38 countries (EU, EFTA, Western Balkans countries, as well as Türkiye) and the United Kingdom.

Urban Atlas Land Cover/Land Use 2018 provides reliable, inter-comparable, high-resolution land use and land cover data for 764 Functional Urban Areas (FUA) with more than 50,000 inhabitants for the 2018 reference year in EEA38 countries (EU, EFTA, Western Balkans countries, as well as Türkiye) and the United Kingdom.

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 Land Cover/Land Use (LC/LU) change for 2012-2018. The 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 change layer 2012-2018. 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 production of the Riparian Zones products was coordinated by the European Environment Agency in the frame of the EU Copernicus programme.

The Coastal Zones (CZ) LC/LU product for 2012 is providing a detailed Land Cover / Land Use (LC/ LU) dataset for areas along the coastline of the EEA38 countries and the United Kingdom, with reference year 2012 for the classification. This product monitors landscape dynamics in European coastal territory to an inland depth of 10 km with a total area of approximately 730,000 km², with all the relevant areas (estuaries, coastal lowlands, nature reserves). The production of the coastal zone layers was coordinated by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in the frame of the EU Copernicus programme, as part of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS) Local Component. The Coastal Zones product covers a buffer zone of coastline derived from EU-Hydro v1.1. Land Cover/Land Use (LC/LU) layer is extracted from Very High Resolution (VHR) satellite data and other available data. 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 adapted to the specific characteristics of coastal zones. The classification provides 71 distinct thematic classes with a Minimum Mapping Unit (MMU) of 0.5 ha and a Minimum Mapping Width (MMW) of 10 m. The product is available for the 2012 and 2018 reference year including change mapping. This CZ dataset is distributed in vector format, in a single OGC GeoPackage SQLite file covering the area of interest.

Small Woody Features are important vectors of biodiversity and provide information on fragmentation of habitats with a direct potential for restoration while also providing a link to hazard protection and green infrastructure, amongst others. VHR_IMAGE_2021 made available in the ESA Copernicus DWH was the main data source for the detection of small woody features identifiable within the given image resolution. The Small Woody Features layer contains woody linear and patchy elements but will not be further differentiated into trees, hedges, bushes and scrub. The spatial pattern shall be limited to linear structures and isolated patches on the basis of geometric characteristics. This product is a vector dataset distributed as OGC GeoPackage files, compliant with the EEA reference grid (100km x 100km).