This metadata refers to the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) dataset, one of the near real-time (NRT) Vegetation Index products of the pan-European High Resolution Vegetation Phenology and Productivity (HR-VPP), component of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS). The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is a widely used, dimensionless vegetation index that is indicative for vegetation density. It is defined as NDVI=(NIR-Red)/(NIR+Red) where NIR corresponds to the reflectance in the near infrared band, and Red to the reflectance in the red bands. The NDVI dataset is made available as raster files with 10 x 10m resolution, in UTM/WGS84 projection corresponding to the Sentinel-2 tiling grid, for those tiles that cover the EEA38 countries and the United Kingdom and for the period from October 2016 until today, with daily updates. Each file has an associated quality indicator (QFLAG2) to assist users with the screening of clouds, shadows from clouds and topography, snow and water surfaces.

The Urban Atlas provides pan-European comparable land use and land cover data for Functional Urban Areas (FUA). The Urban Atlas Change layers have become available from 2012 and only for all FUAs that have been covered in both 2006 and 2012 reference years. Urban Atlas is a joint initiative of the European Commission Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy and the Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry in the frame of the EU Copernicus programme, with the support of the European Space Agency and the European Environment Agency.

The Slope of the green-up period (Left Slope, LSLOPE), one of the Vegetation Phenology and Productivity (VPP) parameters, is a product of the pan-European High Resolution Vegetation Phenology and Productivity (HR-VPP) component of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS). The slope of the green-up period (LSLOPE) expresses the rate of change in the values of the Plant Phenology Index (PPI) at the day when the vegetation growing season starts. The Plant Phenology Index (PPI) is a physically based vegetation index, developed for improving the monitoring of the vegetation growth cycle. The PPI index values, with 5-day satellite revisit cycle, are first used in a function fitting to derive the PPI Seasonal Trajectories, which is a filtered time series with regular 10-day time step. From these Seasonal Trajectories, a suite of 13 Vegetation Phenology and Productivity (VPP) parameters are then computed and provided, for up to two seasons each year. The green-up period slope is one of the 13 parameters. The full list is available in the table 3 of the Product User Manual https://land.copernicus.eu/en/technical-library/product-user-manual-of-seasonal-trajectories/@@download/file A complementary quality indicator (QFLAG) provides a confidence level, that is described in table 4 of the same manual. The LSLOPE dataset is made available as raster files with 10 x 10m resolution, in UTM/WGS84 projection corresponding to the Sentinel-2 tiling grid, for those tiles that cover the EEA38 countries and the United Kingdom and for two seasons in each year from 2017 onwards. It is updated in the first quarter of each year.

The Quality Flag of the PPI Seasonal Trajectories is one of the products of the pan-European High Resolution Vegetation Phenology and Productivity (HR-VPP) component of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS). The Plant Phenology Index (PPI) is a physically based vegetation index for improved monitoring of plant phenology, that is developed from a simplified solution to the radiative transfer equation by Jin and Eklundh (2014) and that has a linear relationship with green leaf area index. The PPI Seasonal Trajectories (ST) product is derived from a TIMESAT-based function fitting of the time series of the PPI vegetation index and thus provides a filtered time series of Plant Phenology Index (PPI), with regular 10-day time step. The Quality Flag indicates the quality of the PPI seasonal trajectory computation, in the form of a confidence level. The QFLAG dataset is made available as raster files with 10 x 10m resolution, in UTM/WGS84 projection corresponding to the Sentinel-2 tiling grid, for those tiles that cover the EEA38 countries and the United Kingdom and for the period from 2017 until today. It is updated in the first quarter of each year.

The End-of-Season Date (EOSD), one of the Vegetation Phenology and Productivity (VPP) parameters, is a product of the pan-European High Resolution Vegetation Phenology and Productivity (HR-VPP) component of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS). The End-of-Season Date (EOSD) marks the date when the vegetation growing season ends in the time profile of the Plant Phenology Index (PPI). The end-of-season occurs, by definition, when the PPI value reaches 15% of the season amplitude during the green-down period. The Plant Phenology Index (PPI) is a physically based vegetation index, developed for improving the monitoring of the vegetation growth cycle. The PPI index values, with 5-day satellite revisit cycle, are first used in a function fitting to derive the PPI Seasonal Trajectories, which is a filtered time series with regular 10-day time step. From these Seasonal Trajectories, a suite of 13 Vegetation Phenology and Productivity (VPP) parameters are then computed and provided, for up to two seasons each year. The End-of-Season Date is one of the 13 parameters. The full list is available in the table 3 of the Product User Manual https://land.copernicus.eu/en/technical-library/product-user-manual-of-seasonal-trajectories/@@download/file A complementary quality indicator (QFLAG) provides a confidence level, that is described in table 4 of the same manual. The EOSD dataset is made available as raster files with 10 x 10m resolution, in UTM/WGS84 projection corresponding to the Sentinel-2 tiling grid, for those tiles that cover the EEA38 countries and the United Kingdom and for two seasons in each year from 2017 onwards. It is updated in the first quarter of each year.

The Urban Atlas provides pan-European comparable land use and land cover data for Functional Urban Areas (FUA). The Street Tree Layer (STL) is a separate layer from the Urban Atlas 2012 LU/LC layer produced within the level 1 urban mask for each FUA. It includes contiguous rows or a patches of trees covering 500 m² or more and with a minimum width of 10 meter over "Artificial surfaces" (nomenclature class 1) inside FUA (i.e. rows of trees along the road network outside urban areas or forest adjacent to urban areas should not be included). Urban Atlas is a joint initiative of the European Commission Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy and the Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry in the frame of the EU Copernicus programme, with the support of the European Space Agency and the European Environment Agency.

The Quality Flag (QFLAG), one of the Vegetation Phenology and Productivity (VPP) parameters, is a product of the pan-European High Resolution Vegetation Phenology and Productivity (HR-VPP) component of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS). The Plant Phenology Index (PPI) is a physically based vegetation index, developed for improving the monitoring of the vegetation growth cycle. The PPI index values, with 5-day satellite revisit cycle, are first used in a function fitting to derive the PPI Seasonal Trajectories, which is a filtered time series with regular 10-day time step. From these Seasonal Trajectories, a suite of 13 Vegetation Phenology and Productivity (VPP) parameters are then computed and provided, for up to two seasons each year. The Seasonal Productivity is one of the 13 parameters. The full list is available in the table 3 of the Product User Manual https://land.copernicus.eu/en/technical-library/product-user-manual-of-seasonal-trajectories/@@download/file The Quality Flag (QFLAG) is a quality indicator for the above set of 13 Vegetation Phenology and Productivity (VPP) parameters and provides a confidence level, that is described in table 4 of the same manual. The QFLAG dataset is made available as raster files with 10 x 10m resolution, in UTM/WGS84 projection corresponding to the Sentinel-2 tiling grid, for those tiles that cover the EEA38 countries and the United Kingdom and for two seasons in each year from 2017 onwards. It is updated in the first quarter of each year.

The Coastal Zones LC/LU Change (CZC) 2012-2018 is providing the Land Cover / Land Use (LC/ LU) change for areas along the coastline of the EEA38 countries and the United Kingdom, between the reference years 2012 and 2018. The Coastal Zones 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 Change product covers a buffer zone of coastline derived from EU-Hydro v1.1. The Land Cover/Land Use (LC/LU) Change layer is extracted from Very High Resolution (VHR) satellite data and other available data. The reference years for the change are 2012 and 2018. 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 status product is available for the 2012 and 2018 reference years. This CZC dataset is distributed in vector format, in a single OGC GeoPackage file covering the area of interest. You can read more about the product here: https://land.copernicus.eu/en/products/coastal-zones/coastal-zones-change-2012-2018.

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 Coastal Zones (CZ) LC/LU product for 2018 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 2018 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. You can read more about the product here: https://land.copernicus.eu/en/products/coastal-zones/coastal-zones-2018.