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derived from EUROSTAT for NUTS 2. While not all 
validation data for Belgium, France, Germany and Holland 
were available and in addition only NUTS 2 regions with 
less than 10% cloud coverage were selected, it was 
possible to examine the surface area coverage correlation 
of cropland in 27 regions (R2-0.71) and of forest in 20 
regions (R2=0.75). 
Percent Crop Area Regression : Belgium-France-Germany-Holland 
  
60 
1 
    
  
    
50 
1 
40 
1 
AVHRR % = 0.89 EUROSTAT% + 2.56 (R2= 0.71) 
  
  
  
T T T T T T T 
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 
ESTIMATED AVHRR CLASSIFICATION PERCENTAGE CROP AREAS 
EUROSTAT NUTS-2 PERCENTAGE CROP AREAS 
Figure 2: Regression showing the surface percent crop area 
coverage in 27 NUTS 2 regions. 
Percent Forest Area Regression : Belgium-France-Germany 
  
40 
1 
30 
1 
20 
1 
10 
L 
  
AVHRR % = 0.73 EUROSTAT% + 1.47 (R2 = 0.75) 
  
  
  
T T T T 
10 20 30 40 
ESTIMATED AVHRR CLASSIFICATION PERCENTAGE FOREST AREAS 
EUROSTAT NUTS-2 PERCENTAGE FOREST AREAS 
Figure 3: Regression showing the surface percent forest 
arca coverage in 20 NUTS 2 regions. 
CONCLUSION 
This paper has illustrated the complementary usage of 
remote sensing data and GIS information in the production 
of a digital European land cover map at an approximate 
scale of 1:2million. The high repetitive rate on which each 
process has to be carried out and the large amount of data 
requires the efficient integration of diverse data sets and a 
reduction in user interaction. The proposed methodology 
indicates that a high degree of automatization can be 
implemented but that some user interaction particularly in 
the assignment of land cover classes is and should still be 
required. The processing procedures described in this study 
could not be implemented in an efficient, reliable or timely 
Manner without the use of GIS techniques. 
357 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
The author would like to thank J. Mégier and S. Folving for 
their assistance and contribution, the representatives of the 
MARS project for furnishing the data, D. Roy for the 
provision of the compositing algorithms and last but not 
least A. Stein for the invaluable technical assistance. 
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