The INSPIRE – GMES Workshop for Land Cover took place in Madrid (Ministry of Public Works) at 29-30th June and 1st July. The Steering Committee was composed by CEN/TC 287, INSPIRE, GMES, DG ENTR, EEA, IGN Spain, CDTI.
Land use and Land cover are amongst the most important geographic information themes today. They are essential for climate variables, urban sprawl, food production, biodiversity, desertification and many other uses. This has lead different organizations at regional, national, continental and world level to launch many different Land Use and Land Cover information programmes. The many activities producing information from global to local scale have been sometimes developed independently, addressing specific requirements. This has resulted in a suite of datasets, not always compatible with each other.
There is an urgent need for harmonization and standardization of land cover products at various levels. Such initiatives already exist; at international level with the ISO and OGC standards and the Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) created by the UN FAO. In Europe there are also land cover and land use activities both at European level and national level. Harmonization of land cover at European level started with the Corine Land Cover programme. GMES Land Monitoring in 2006 with the precursor service embraced this activity for Europe, together with EEA and EIONET. The INSPIRE Directive through the implementation of Annex II and III will be a key driver for the standardization and harmonization of land cover and land use information in the EU.
As highlighted in a recent EIONET meeting ‘GMES Land Monitoring Services’, Copenhagen 23 and 24th April 2009, there is a need in GMES to coordinate and harmonize National Land activities so that they can be integrated at European level, being regarded as a main element of the architecture and functionality of the Land Monitoring Core Service, in close relation with the implementation of INSPIRE.
This workshop was organized in the context of the definition of INSPIRE Annex II Land Cover and Annex III Land Use Data, linking together these various initiatives at European and Member States level.