In: Wagner W., Székely, B. (eds.): ISPRS TC VII Symposium - 100 Years ISPRS, Vienna, Austria, July 5-7, 2010, IAPRS, Vol. XXXVIII, Part 7B 
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The architecture of geoland2 is made up of two layers (Figure 
1): the Core Mapping Services (CMS) provide land cover, land 
use and land cover change, as well as a range of biogeophysical 
variables as an input to more elaborated products while the 
Core Information Services (CIS) offer specific information for 
European Environmental Policies and international treaties on 
climate change, food security and the sustainable development 
of Africa. The CIS are in direct contact with institutional end- 
users in charge of European policies, and Member State policies 
which have a generic pan-European character. They serve to 
estimate the added value of the CMS in comparison to existing 
approaches and to carry out a utility assessment of selected end- 
to-end service demonstrations. 
Figure 1. The geoland2 structure 
The 3 Core Mapping Service tasks (Table 1) are: 
• Land Cover & Land Use (Euroland): at local scale, 
Euroland produces VHR Urban Atlas inventory and 
change according to the specifications approved by DG 
REGIO in November 2007, on several tens of European 
cities. At continental scale, it produces over Europe and 
demonstration sites HR Land Cover inventory and 
change. 
• Biogeophysical Parameters (BioPar): it produces in near 
real time (NRT) and off-line mode a series of 
biogeophysical variables describing the continental 
vegetation state, the radiation budget at the surface, and 
the water cycle. These products are derived mostly with 
Medium Resolution (MR) and Low Resolution (LR) 
data, at a global and continental scale, with a time 
frequency update from 3-hourly to 30 days. 
• Seasonal & Annual Change Monitoring (Satchmo): it 
operates at continental scale over Europe and sub- 
Saharan Africa. It delivers: (i) a VHR/HR Area Frame 
Sampling over permanent samples representative for all 
European and African environmental/ecological 
conditions for annual statistics of land cover & land 
cover change; (ii) a complete MR continental coverage 
of seasonal and annual vegetation parameters to produce 
land cover change and agricultural land use. The time 
frequency of the product update is on the order of 3 -12 
months. 
Services 
Scale 
Portfolio Elements / Description 
Area covered 
in geoland2 
LMCS Infrastructure development and demonstration of production capacity 
Local 
VHR Urban 
Atlas Inventory 
22 classes, 0.25 ha 
according to DG Regio 
definition 
8 urban 
agglomerations 
LC/LCC 
VHR Urban 
Atlas Change 
46 urban 
agglomerations 
(Euroland) 
Continental 
HR Land Cover 
Inventory 
5 HR layers (quantitative 
layers), pixel-based and 
validated to 1 ha MMU 
Europe + 
demonstration 
sites 
HR Land Cover 
Change 
ling Services - Baseline 
Seasonal / 
Annual Land 
Cover 
Continental 
VHR/HR Area 
Frame Sampling 
Permanent Samples 
representative for all 
European and African 
environmental / ecological 
conditions for annual 
statistics and calibration & 
validation of Euroland and 
BioPar 
Europe (VHR) 
& Sub-Saharan 
Africa (HR) - 
continental 
coverage by 
local 
representative 
samples 
& 
s 
o 
CJ 
Changes 
(Satchmo) 
MR Seasonal 
Land Cover 
Dynamics 
Complete continental 
coverage with medium 
resolution seasonal and 
annual vegetation 
parameters to support 
Euroland and agricultural 
monitoring 
Europe - sub- 
Saharan Africa 
Biophysical 
Global 
HR/MR/LR 
Near Real Time 
and off-line 
Description of the 
continental vegetation, the 
Europe - Africa 
(BioPar) 
monitoring of 
biophysical 
variables 
radiation budget at the 
surface, and the water cycle 
- Global 
Table 1. The CMS portfolio 
Services 
Scale 
Portfolio Elements / Description 
Area covered 
in geoland2 
Core Information Services - Service Evolution 
Verification and Validation of LMCS Core Mapping Services 
Spatial 
Planning 
Continental 
/ Europe 
Land take trends & Indicators, based on 
Euroland data, supporting spatial planning 
from regional to European scale 
Europe + 
Demonstration 
sites 
Agri- 
Environment 
Continental 
/ Europe 
AgriEnv indicators based on Euroland and 
Satchmo for assessing the pressure and 
impact of agricultural management on the 
environment 
Demonstration 
sites 
Water 
Continental 
/ Europe 
Assessing the status of water resources based 
on Euroland and BioPar by means of baseline 
& scenario modelling for efficient cross- 
border water management in support of the 
WFD 
Europe + 
Demonstration 
sites 
Forest 
Continental 
/ Europe 
Forest (environmental) indicators based on 
Euroland in support of the reporting for 
MCPE, SEBI2010, UNCBD 
Demonstration 
sites 
Land Carbon 
Global 
Terrestrial carbon fluxes and the associated 
soil moisture, vegetation biomass and carbon 
storage 
Globe 
Natural 
Resources 
Monitoring 
Africa 
Contribution to building up the African 
environmental seasonal / annual change 
monitoring (“MONDE”) component of the 
ACP observatory 
Africa 
Global Crop 
Monitoring 
Global 
Objective, real-time crop assessment and 
yield forecasts in support of EC policies in 
field Agriculture and Food Security 
Europe + Globe 
Table 2. The CIS portfolio 
The 7 Core Information Services are being set-up with the 
following missions (Table 2): 
• Spatial Planning: describe, explain and forecast urban 
land use change in Europe. 
• Water: integrate EO derived LC/LU data in water 
quality models that can contribute to water 
management in Europe in flexible, sustainable and 
cost-efficient way. 
• Forest: address specific user requirements from the 
European Environment Agency (EEA), DG JRC, and 
DG AGRI for improved forest class and biodiversity 
indicator information required for the LMCS and 
policy reporting requirements at a Pan-European 
level. 
• Land Carbon: understand and assess the impact of 
weather and climate variability on terrestrial 
biospheric carbon fluxes, in the context of 
international conventions.