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| Global Land Cover Facility | |
|---|---|
| Name | Global Land Cover Facility |
| Formation | 1990s |
| Type | Research initiative |
| Headquarters | College Park, Maryland |
| Location | University of Maryland, College Park |
| Leader title | Director |
Global Land Cover Facility
The Global Land Cover Facility operated as a major remote sensing data archive and distribution initiative based at the University of Maryland, College Park that aggregated and disseminated satellite imagery, land cover maps, and ancillary geospatial datasets to support researchers at institutions such as National Aeronautics and Space Administration, United States Geological Survey, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and international partners including United Nations Environment Programme and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The Facility served as a focal point for collaborations among academics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Columbia University, and agencies like European Space Agency and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to advance projects tied to Landsat program, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, and continental mapping efforts.
The Facility curated global archives of remote sensing assets from programs including Landsat program, Landsat 7, Landsat 8, Landsat 5, Sentinel-2, Avhrr datasets, and supported derived products such as Normalized Difference Vegetation Index layers, land cover classifications used by World Resources Institute, International Union for Conservation of Nature, Conservation International, and regional assessments for entities like African Union and European Commission. Its portal facilitated access for users from research centers like Smithsonian Institution, Yale University, Princeton University, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, and policy institutions including The World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change stakeholders.
Established in the 1990s within the University of Maryland, College Park ecosystem, the initiative evolved through collaborations with projects such as Global Land Cover Network, Global Observing System for Climate, Global Earth Observation System of Systems, and programs run by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and USGS EROS Center. Key milestones involved integration with academic efforts at Johns Hopkins University, Iowa State University, University of California, Berkeley, and collaborations with international research centers like Center for International Forestry Research and CIFOR. The Facility participated in conferences and working groups including Committee on Earth Observation Satellites, Group on Earth Observations, American Geophysical Union, and Association of American Geographers symposia.
The archive distributed multispectral imagery, classification layers, change detection products, and training datasets used by projects at Google Earth Engine, Planet Labs, DigitalGlobe, Esri, Hexagon AB, and open initiatives such as OpenStreetMap-linked efforts. Services included data hosting, metadata catalogs interoperable with standards from International Organization for Standardization, Open Geospatial Consortium, Global Biodiversity Information Facility, and integration with portals run by European Space Agency Copernicus Programme and NASA Earth Observing System. Researchers from Carnegie Institution for Science, Brookings Institution, Pew Research Center, and NGOs like World Wildlife Fund and The Nature Conservancy used Facility products for biodiversity, deforestation, and land use studies.
Users applied Facility datasets in studies at Harvard University and University of California, Los Angeles on deforestation in Amazon rainforest, agriculture monitoring in Brazil, urban expansion analyses for New York City, Beijing, Mumbai, and climate impact assessments linked to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports. Conservation research by BirdLife International, Rainforest Alliance, Wildlife Conservation Society, and policy assessments for United Nations Development Programme drew on Facility outputs. Academic publications in journals from Nature Publishing Group, Science (journal), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Remote Sensing of Environment cited datasets used in studies on carbon fluxes, wetland mapping, and land degradation.
Funding and partnerships involved federal agencies like National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, United States Agency for International Development, and collaborations with philanthropic organizations such as Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and corporate partners like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services for storage and distribution. International collaborations included links to European Commission Directorate-General for Research, African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, and consortiums with universities including University of Tokyo, Australian National University, University of São Paulo, and Peking University.
The Facility's infrastructure leveraged computing resources and archives at University of Maryland Libraries, high-performance computing centers like XSEDE, and data centers affiliated with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Technology stacks incorporated software from Esri ArcGIS, ERDAS IMAGINE, GDAL, QGIS, and workflows using languages and platforms from Python (programming language), R (programming language), and tools adopted by Google Earth Engine and Apache Hadoop. Satellite operations and calibration tied to teams at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and calibration facilities collaborating with NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information.
The Facility influenced land cover science cited by institutions such as United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and national agencies, enabling applications in disaster response for United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and monitoring by Environmental Protection Agency (United States). Criticism paralleled debates involving Intellectual Property Office-related data licensing, concerns raised in forums like Open Data Institute and Electronic Frontier Foundation about access and sustainability, and scholarly critiques in venues such as PLoS One and Environmental Research Letters regarding classification accuracy, temporal resolution, and funding continuity.
Category:Remote sensing organizations