DEA Land Cover Level 4

Abstract Land cover is the observed physical cover on the Earth’s surface including trees, shrubs, grasses, soils, exposed rocks, water bodies, plantations, crops and built structures. A consistent, Australia-wide land cover product helps understanding of how the different parts of the environment change and inter-relate. Earth observation data recorded over a period of time firstly allows the observation of the state of land cover at a specific time and secondly the way that land cover changes by comparison between times. DEA Land Cover divides the landscape into six base land cover types, which are then further detailed through the addition of environmental descriptors. The structure is as follows: Cultivated Terrestrial Vegetation percentage of cover life form (woody or herbaceous only) Natural Terrestrial Vegetation percentage of cover life form (woody or herbaceous) Natural Aquatic Vegetation percentage of cover life form (woody or herbaceous) water seasonality Artificial Surfaces Natural Bare percentage of bare cover Water water persistence intertidal area Currency Date modified: April 2026 Modification frequency: Annually Version: 2.0.0 Data extent Coordinate reference: GDA94 / Australian Albers - EPSG:3577 Spatial extent west longitude: 112° south latitude: -44° east longitude: 154° north latitude: -10° Temporal coverage: 1988 to 2025 Source information DEA Land Cover is based on the globally applicable Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) taxonomy Version 2. DEA Land Cover classifications have been generated by combining quantitative (continuous) or qualitative (thematic) environmental information (referred to as Essential Descriptors; EDs) derived from Landsat satellite sensor data. Several EDs have been generated previously by Geoscience Australia, including annual water summaries, vegetation fractional cover, mangrove extent and the Inter Tidal Extent Model, whilst others have been developed more recently. These EDs have been combined to generate detailed, consistent and expandable annual classifications of Australia’s land cover from 1988 through to present. For a complete description of the methods used to produce DEA Land Cover, please see the DEA Knowledge Hub. Download the Raw source images To explore Landcover Level 3 and L4 data use the DEA Land Cover Explorer Application Lineage statement DEA Land Cover is based on the globally applicable Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) taxonomy Version 2. DEA Land Cover classifications have been generated by combining quantitative (continuous) or qualitative (thematic) environmental information (referred to as Essential Descriptors; EDs) derived from Landsat satellite sensor data. The FAO LCCS taxonomy is hierarchical and consists of a dichotomous phase (Level 1 to 3) and a modular phase (referred to as Level 4). In Level 1, vegetated and non-vegetated areas are first separated. These are then divided into terrestrial or aquatic categories to form Level 2. In the vegetated terrestrial category, cultivated and natural (including semi-natural) areas are differentiated. The non-vegetated category is further divided into artificial surfaces, and natural surfaces incorporating low vegetation cover and bare areas. Including the non-vegetated aquatic class (from Level 2), this results in the creation of six base land cover categories. At Level 4, vegetated areas are further classified using information that differentiates lifeform (woody and herbaceous) and quantifies vegetation cover percent and water seasonality (for Natural Aquatic Vegetation). Natural Surface areas have information added (bare gradation) which describes the level of remaining vegetation present (sparse, very sparse or not detectable). Non-vegetated aquatic areas (Water) are further described on the basis of their persistence (hydroperiod) over a calendar year. The FAO LCCS differentiates water in different physical states (liquid or frozen; ice or snow), however only liquid water is included in the current release. For a complete description of product lineage, please see the DEA Knowledge Hub. For a complete discussion of the product quality and limitations, please see the DEA Knowledge Hub. Data dictionary Attribute Name Description Category Indicates Image as Primary or Overview. ClassName The land cover classification category the pixel is assigned to. datetime This date indicates the year that the annual summary layer represents. Since the layer summarises data for an entire calendar year, a date of '01/01/1988' indicates that it is a 1988 annual summary. Name The file name of the image. Contact Digital Earth Australia, [e-mail]摘要 土地覆被是地球表面可观测到的物理覆盖物，包括树木、灌木、草本植物、土壤、裸露岩石、水体、人工林、农作物以及人工建构筑物。 一套覆盖全澳大利亚的一致性土地覆被产品，有助于理解环境各组成部分的变化规律与相互关联关系。通过长期记录的地球观测数据，既可以获取特定时间点的土地覆被状态，也可通过不同时相的对比分析得到土地覆被的变化过程。 数字地球澳大利亚（Digital Earth Australia, DEA）土地覆被产品将地表划分为6种基础土地覆被类型，再通过添加环境描述符进一步细化分类，其结构如下： 栽培陆生植被：覆被占比、生活型（仅木本或草本） 自然陆生植被：覆被占比、生活型（木本或草本） 自然水生植被：覆被占比、生活型（木本或草本）、水体季节性 人工地表 自然裸地：裸地占比 水体：水体持久性 潮间带区域 版本信息 修改日期：2026年4月 更新频率：每年一次 版本：2.0.0 数据范围 坐标系：GDA94 / 澳大利亚阿尔伯斯投影（EPSG:3577） 空间范围：西经112°、南纬-44°，东经154°、北纬-10° 时间覆盖范围：1988年至2025年 数据来源说明 本DEA土地覆被产品基于全球通用的联合国粮食及农业组织（Food and Agriculture Organisation, FAO）土地覆被分类系统（Land Cover Classification System, LCCS）第2版分类体系。其分类结果通过整合从Landsat卫星传感器数据中提取的定量（连续型）或定性（专题型）环境信息（称为核心描述符，Essential Descriptors, EDs）生成。澳大利亚地球科学局（Geoscience Australia）此前已生成多项核心描述符，包括年度水体汇总数据、植被覆盖度、红树林分布范围以及潮间带范围模型，另有部分描述符为近年新增。通过整合这些核心描述符，可生成1988年至今覆盖全澳大利亚的精细化、一致性且可扩展的年度土地覆被分类结果。如需了解产品生产方法的完整细节，请访问DEA知识枢纽（DEA Knowledge Hub）。 可下载原始源图像；如需探索三级（Level 3）和四级（Level 4）土地覆被数据，请使用DEA土地覆被浏览器应用程序。 产品谱系说明 本DEA土地覆被产品基于全球通用的联合国粮食及农业组织（FAO）土地覆被分类系统（LCCS）第2版分类体系，分类结果生成方式与前文一致。FAO LCCS分类体系为层级结构，包含二分法阶段（1至3级）与模块化阶段（即4级）。在1级分类中，首先区分植被覆盖区与非植被覆盖区；随后将其划分为陆生或水生类别，形成2级分类。在陆生植被覆盖类别中，进一步区分栽培植被区与自然（含半自然）植被区；非植被覆盖类别则划分为人工地表，以及带有低植被覆盖的自然地表与裸地区域。结合来自2级分类的非植被水生类别，最终形成6种基础土地覆被类别。 在4级分类中，植被覆盖区域通过生活型（木本/草本）区分、植被覆盖百分比量化以及（针对自然水生植被的）水体季节性特征进一步细分；自然地表区域则添加裸地梯度信息，描述剩余植被的覆盖程度（稀疏、极稀疏或不可检测）；非植被水生区域（水体）则依据其在一个日历年中的持续时长（水文周期）进行细化。FAO LCCS可区分不同物理状态的水体（液态或固态，即冰或雪），但本版本仅包含液态水体。如需了解产品谱系的完整细节，以及产品质量与局限性的全面讨论，请访问DEA知识枢纽。 数据字典 属性名 说明 类别（Category） 标识影像为主影像或概览影像 类别名（ClassName） 像素所归属的土地覆被分类类别 时间（datetime） 该日期代表年度汇总图层对应的年份。由于图层汇总了完整日历年的观测数据，例如日期"01/01/1988"即代表1988年度的汇总结果 文件名（Name） 影像的文件名称 联系方式 数字地球澳大利亚（Digital Earth Australia），邮箱：[e-mail]