Aggregated land cover of Senegal (AFRICOVER)

This dataset has been produced from visual interpretation of digitally enhanced LANDSAT ETM images (Bands 4,3,2) acquired mainly in the year 2000-2005. The land cover classes have been developed using the FAO/UNEP international standard LCCS classification system. The land cover legend of Senegal, consisting of 55 classes, was set up using the F.A.O. LCCS methodology. To affine the interpretation, a set of aerial photos donated by USGS and the high resolution images of Google Earth have been used. The mapping scale used for the visual photo-interpretation was 1:100.000. The full resolution version of the Land Cover dataset consists of 23,922 polygons, covering an area of 19,659 thousands ha. There is also an aggregated version generated on the basis of a spatial criteria, which produces about the 11% reduction of the total amount of polygons. The spatially aggregated dataset (available for download) consists of 21,238 polygons. The Senegal Land Cover mapping was carried out in the framework of Global Land Cover Network (GLCN) activities.