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- The Global Land Cover Facility (GLCF) provides earth science data and products
to help everyone to better understand global environmental systems. In
particular, the GLCF develops and distributes remotely sensed satellite data
and products that explain land cover from the local to global scales.
GLCF research focuses on determining land cover and land cover change around
the world. Land cover is the discernible vegetation, geologic, hydrologic or
anthropogenic features on the planet's land surface. These features, such as
forests, urban area, croplands and sand dunes, can be measured and categorized
using satellite imagery. Comparing one area with two images taken at different
dates can assess Land cover change. Determining where, when, how much and why
change occurs with land cover is a crucial scientific concern. It is imperative
that appropriate tools be made available to better manage and adapt to change.
The majority of users accessing GLCF datasets
·Science: geography, Earth science, ecology, climatology, conservation,
education
·Environmental Policy: global warming, sustainable development, risk
management
·Resource Management: biodiversity assessment, forestry, protected area
management, forest inventory
·Disaster Management: fire, flood and drought monitoring, disaster mitigation,
food security Computer Science: data mining, data fusion, computer vision
Website: http://glcf.umd.edu/
[Summary provided by the University of Maryland.]
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