Land cover of Sudan by State (2012)

The land cover database provides information on the land cover distribution by administrative divisions (States). The dataset was created using the FAO/GLCN methodology and tools. The land cover mapping was carried out with the interpretation of an integrated coverage of GLS Landsat satellite images (2000 and circa 2005-2007, band composite 432) 30m res., acquired for the whole extent of Sudan, and improved with updated higher resolution SPOT (2009-2010) 2.5-5m, 10-20m res., IRS (2007) 15-22m res. and Aster images (2005-2010) 15m res. covering the agricultural areas. This approach was adopted to emphasize the land cover features in the agricultural production areas which were derived from the existing Africover Sudan data base dated circa 2002. The legend was prepared using the Land Cover Classification System (LCCS*). The database is divided in two parts, West and East, named: merge_F_West.shp (293,781 polygons) merge_F_East.shp (197,895 polygons) The two parts cover the entire Sudan. The “merge” suffix means that the database is merged according to the States, i.e. each Land Cover polygon has a label (in the dbf table) of the State in which the polygon is located. The merge_F_East.shp covers the following States: Blue Nile, El Gadarif, El Gezira, Kassala, Khartoum, Red Sea, River Nile, Sinnar, White Nile. The merge_F_West.shp covers the following States: Northern, Northern Darfur, Northern Kordufan, Southern Darfur, Southern Kordufan, Western Darfur. The legend is the key of the database. All the information included in the database is implicit in the legend. The legend is defined according to the LCCS (Land Cover Classification System), which is the classification system developed by GLCN to systematically describe the land cover.