environmental monitoring programs would facilitate an early 
detection, location and monitoring of problem areas, the 
environmental “hot spots”. Their early identification is 
important to the effectiveness of early warning systems, 
forecasting the risk of natural disasters and environmental 
degradation. Hence, the comprehensive LID would have two 
functions: it would serve as a reliable reference for monitoring 
and, in some cases, forecasting of environmental changes, 
including the natural disasters, while its hard copy products 
would provide a “snapshot” record of the land cover situation 
as it existed at a given time. 
Obviously, each regional and global program should remain 
responsible for managing its own comprehensive LID, 
because their respective information databases are specific to 
objectives of each program. Nevertheless, it should be possible 
to design a standardized architecture for the comprehensive 
LID which would satisfy requirements of all the regional and 
global land cover mapping and environmental monitoring 
programs. Currently, there is no such standardization of 
databases of the programs listed in Section 5, and hardly any 
harmonization between them. Yet, these programs are 
complementary, some partially overlapping, and all would 
benefit from closer coordination. 
When any international coordination is proposed, the question 
always arises which country is going to be responsible for it. It 
is a sensitive issue and, not surprisingly, a fair number of good 
proposals has faltered on it. However, in this case the situation 
is simpler because of the existence of the United Nations 
Environment Program (UNEP), and its Global Resource 
Information Database (GRID). The proposed coordinating 
task, involving environmental monitoring at the regional and 
global levels, is clearly within the GRID’s mandate. 
Furthermore, GRID has recently started two important 
initiatives relevant to this task: 
(a) developing the UNEPnet, which will become the global 
environmental Internet, with the objective to enhance 
access to environmental information products from UNEP 
and other sources; 
(b) developing a dedicated satellite network, Mercure, for 
effective global environment-related communication. 
$. EXAMPLES OF REGIONAL AND GLOBAL 
LAND COVER MAPPING AND 
ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING PROGRAMS 
Several examples of major on-going, planned or proposed 
regional and global programs related to land cover mapping 
and environmental monitoring by remote sensing are briefly 
described. These programs are addressing the growing need 
for reliable, consistent and timely information about changes 
in vegetation cover, surface waters, land degradation, 
settlements, and other land cover features of the earth's 
Surface. Such information is essential for the sustainable 
management of natural resources and environmental 
protection. Implementation of all these programs is based on 
the use of RS data from EO satellites. However, it is important 
to note that RS data are complemented by other geospatial 
data, such as the existing maps, GPS location data, validation 
data and in some cases by field surveys in sampling areas. 
421 
5.1 Land Cover Mapping 
5.1.1 Land Cover Database and Map of Africa 
(AFRICOVER) 
Status: ongoing, regional - Africa. 
Organization: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) 
of the United Nations. 
The AFRICOVER project will produce a digital land cover 
database and associated hard copy land cover map for the 
whole African continent. The overall project objective is to 
provide reliable land cover information required for the 
sustainable management of natural resources, environmental 
protection and international development projects. An equally 
important objective is to strengthen the capacities of 
participating African regional and national organizations for 
maintaining the AFRICOVER database, monitoring of land 
cover changes, and initiating national land cover mapping 
projects at larger scales. The mapping scales are 1 : 200 000 or 
1:250 000 (depending on the scales of topographic base 
maps in respective countries) and 1 : 1 million. Land cover 
classification system, map legends and formats, structure of 
digital database, mapping methodology and standards for 
geometric and thematic accuracies have been developed with 
the involvement of experts from industrialized as well as 
African developing countries. The United Nations Economic 
Commission for Africa (UNECA), and the selected African 
regional and national mapping organizations, will participate 
in project implementation. Although it is a regional project, its 
implementation was divided into sub-regional and national 
modules in order to accommodate the priorities of funding 
organizations. However, it should be emphasized that the 
mapping methodology and standards are the same for all 
project modules. One of the first tasks, which is currently 
being undertaken, is development of a uniform, hierarchical 
land cover classification system for Africa. The map legend for 
scales 1 : 200 000 and 1 : 250 000, based on such a uniform 
land cover classification system, may differ between different 
map sheets, depending on the type of ecosystems which they 
cover. But its overall consistency will be retained. The first 
phase of the AFRICOVER program, funded by Italy, is being 
implemented in East Africa. It is the largest module, 
comprising 12 countries with a total area of 9.6 million sq. 
km. The Africover is a truly pioneering project for land cover 
mapping at scales 1: 200 000 to 1 : 250 000 and 1 : 1 million 
of the whole continent. 
5.1.2 Coordination of Information on the Environment 
(CORINE) - Land Cover project 
Status: ongoing, regional - the European Union 
countries and several Central/Eastern 
European and North African countries. 
Organization: European Environment Agency (EEA) 
of the European Commission. 
The objective of the CORINE Land Cover project is to 
produce a computerized inventory of Europe's land cover. The 
inventory is conducted by each participating country under 
EEA coordination and according to CORINE standards for 
land cover classification, accuracy assessment and types and 
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B4. Vienna 1996