Principal Investigator: Matthew Hansen, Peter Potapov Co Investigators: Xiao-Peng Song, Alexandra (Sasha) Tyukavina Sponsor: USGS-NASA Landsat Science Team Time Period: 2018 to 2022 Researchers: Andrés Hernández Serna Project Description Remote sensing scientists have employed the free and open Landsat archive to produce pathfinding global-scale data sets characterizing both land cover extent and change. Here, we propose a method to consistently characterize annual time-series of global percent tree canopy and bare ground cover, and surface water extent. We will combine indirect post-characterization comparison and direct change detection methods to map land changes. Area estimates of loss and gain for each theme will be made from stratified probability-based samples. The sample-based area estimates will then be used to adjust the map products. Per pixel adjustments using fuzzy logic will enable the matching of total area of mapped change with the sample-based area estimates. In so doing, we will ensure that annual land cover extent maps are consistent with inter-annual land cover change. Related Projects: Integrating MODIS, Landsat and GLAS in characterizing forest extent, structure and change Quantifying Global Forest Cover Change Global Forest Watch Development of the Global Land Cover Initiative Suite of Products Global Long-Term Multi-Sensor Web-Enabled Landsat Data Record Related Publications: Tyukavina, A., Stehman, S. V., Pickens, A. H., Potapov, P., & Hansen, M. C. (2025) Practical global sampling methods for estimating area and map accuracy of land cover and change. Remote Sensing of Environment, 324, 114714. Radeloff, V. C., Roy, D. P., Wulder, M. A., Anderson, M., Cook, B., Crawford, C. J., ... Hansen, M. C.... & Zhu, Z. (2024). Need and vision for global medium-resolution Landsat and Sentinel-2 data products. Remote Sensing of Environment, 300, 113918. Potapov, P., Hansen, M. C., Turubanova, S., Tyukavina, A., Zalles, V., Song, X. P., & Khan, A. (2023). Reply to: Measuring the world’s cropland area. Nature Food, 4(1), 33-34. Turubanova, S., Potapov, P., Hansen, M. C., Li, X., Tyukavina, A., Pickens, A. H., Hernandez-Serna, ... & Stolle, F. (2023). Tree canopy extent and height change in Europe, 2001–2021, quantified using Landsat data archive. Remote Sensing of Environment, 298, 113797. Song, X. P. (2023). The future of global land change monitoring. International Journal of Digital Earth, 16(1), 2279-2300. Wulder, M. A., Roy, D. P., Radeloff, V. C., Loveland, T. R., Anderson, M. C., Johnson, D. M., ... Hansen, M.C., ..., Cook, B. D. (2022). Fifty years of Landsat science and impacts. Remote Sensing of Environment, 280, 113195. Potapov, P., Turubanova, S., Hansen, M.C., Tyukavina, A., Zalles, V., Khan, A., Song, X-P, Pickens, A., Shen, Q., Cortez, J. (2022) Global maps of cropland extent and change show accelerated cropland expansion in the twenty-first century. Nature Food, 3, 19-28 Potapov, P., Hansen, M.C., Pickens, A., Hernandez-Serna, A., Tyukavina, A., Turubanova, S., Zalles, V., Li, X., Khan, A., Stolle, F., Harris, N., Song, X-P, Baggett, A., Kommareddy, I., Kommareddy, A. (2022) The global 2000-2020 land cover and land use change dataset derived from the Landsat archive: first results. Frontiers in Remote Sensing Hakimdavar, R., Hubbard, A., Policelli, F., Pickens, A., Hansen, M., Fatoyinbo, T., Lagomasino, D., Pahlevan, N., Unninayar, S., Kavvada, A., Carroll, M., Smith, B., Hurwitz, M., Wood, D., Schollaert Uz, S. (2020) Monitoring Water-Related Ecosystems with Earth Observation Data in Support of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 Reporting. Remote Sensing, 12(10), 1634. Potapov, P., Hansen, M.C., Kommareddy, I., Kommareddy, A., Turubanova, S., Pickens, A., Adusei, B., Tyukavina, A., Ying, Q. (2020) Landsat Analysis Ready Data for Global Land Cover and Land Cover Change Mapping. Remote Sensing, 12(3), 426.