Abstract
CORINE land cover (CLC) is used to analyze the state and evolution of land covers in the coastal zone, which is recognized as one of the most important ecosystems providing a wide range of services to human societies. CLC data were processed and spatially analyzed using GIS to study land cover changes in an area of 10 km landwards from the coastline along the Iberian Peninsula, including contrasted coastal zones in Portugal and Spain. A series of methodological limitations arising from the results of this study were investigated. In particular, we concentrated on the effect that spatial definition, delimitation of the coastline, characterization and delimitation of wetlands and water bodies, and the coherence in land cover changes exerted on the pattern and magnitude of land cover temporal changes. For example, in Galicia, “water courses” apparently increased by 520% whereas “intertidal flats” were reduced by 77% between 2000 and 2006. In Northern Portugal, “salt marshes” increased by 40% and “coastal lagoons” decreased by 90% over the same period. The effect of these different delimitations would represent a 30% increase in the Galician coastline length. Some ancillary data such as topographic maps, orthophotographs or satellite imagery are presented as a necessary complement to accurately estimate land cover changes and some methodological cautions are discussed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bach M, Breuer L, Frede HG, Huisman JA, Otte A, Waldhardt R (2006) Accuracy and congruency of three different digital land-use maps. Landsc Urban Plan 78(4):289–299. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2005.09.004
Barreira González P, González PB, Cascón VG, Sendra JB (2012) Detección de errores temáticos en el Corine Land Cover a través del estudio de cambios: Comunidad de Madrid (2000-2006). Estudios Geográficos 73(272):7–34. https://doi.org/10.3989/estgeogr.201201
Boak EH, Turner IL (2005) Shoreline definition and detection: a review. J Coast Res 214:688–703. https://doi.org/10.2112/03-0071.1
Büttner G (2014) Corine land cover and land cover change products. In Land use and land cover mapping in Europe (pp. 55–74). Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7969-3_5
Cabral P, Feger C, Levrel H, Chambolle M, Basque D (2016) Assessing the impact of land-cover changes on ecosystem services: a first step toward integrative planning in Bordeaux, France. Ecosystem Services 22, Part B:318–327. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2016.08.005
Caetano M, Nunes V, and Nune A (2009) Corine land cover 2006 for continental Portugal. Instituo Geográfico Português. http://mapas.dgterritorio.pt/atom-dgt/pdf-cous/CLC2006/CORINE_Land_cover_2006_for_Continental_Portugal.pdf. Accessed 22 Feb 2018
Casal G, Sánchez-Carnero N, Freire J (2010) Generación de una línea de costa digital de Galicia (NW España) a gran escala, utilizando fotointerpretación y segmentación dinámica. Boletín de la Asociación de Geógrafos Españoles (53):7–19
Catalá Mateo R, Mateo RC, Sendra JB, Rocha WP (2008) Análisis de posibles errores en la base de datos Corine Land Cover (1990-2000) en la Comunidad de Madrid. Estudios Geográficos 69(264):81–104. https://doi.org/10.3989/egeogr.2008.i264.80
Copernicus (2018) CLC 2000 - Copernicus land monitoring service [land item]. https://land.copernicus.eu/pan-european/corine-land-cover/clc-2000. Accessed 22 Feb 2018
Crossland CJ, Baird D, Ducrotoy JP, Lindeboom H, Buddemeier RW, Dennison WC et al (2005) The coastal zone - a domain of global interactions. In: Crossland CJ, Kremer HH, Lindeboom HJ, Crossland JIM, Tissier MDAL (eds) Coastal fluxes in the anthropocene. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, pp 1–37. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-27851-6_1
Cruickshank MM, Tomlinson RW, Trew S (2000) Application of Corine land-cover mapping to estimate carbon stored in the vegetation of Ireland. J Environ Manag 58(4):269–287. https://doi.org/10.1006/jema.2000.0330
Diaz-Pacheco J, Gutiérrez J (2014) Exploring the limitations of Corine land cover for monitoring urban land-use dynamics in metropolitan areas. J Land Use Sci 9(3):243–259. https://doi.org/10.1080/1747423X.2012.761736
Disperati L, Virdis SGP (2015) Assessment of land-use and land-cover changes from 1965 to 2014 in tam Giang-Cau Hai lagoon, Central Vietnam. Appl Geogr 58:48–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2014.12.012
Environmental Protection Agency (2018) Uses and limitations of CLC data. https://www.epa.ie/soilandbiodiversity/soils/land/corine/uses/. Accessed 2 Jan 2019
European Environment Agency (1994) Corine Land cover - Part 1: Methodology (Publication). https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/COR0-part1. Accessed 2 Jan 2018
European Environment Agency (2006a) The changing faces of Europe’s coastal areas (EEA Report 6/2006). https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/eea_report_2006_6. Accessed 22 Feb 2018
European Environment Agency (2006b) The thematic accuracy of Corine land cover 2000 - assessment using LUCAS (Technical report 7/2006). https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/technical_report_2006_7. Accessed 22 Feb 2018
European Environment Agency (2007) CLC 2006 technical guidelines (Technical report 17/2007). https://land.copernicus.eu/user-corner/technical-library/CLC2006_technical_guidelines.pdf. Accessed 22 Feb 2018
European Environment Agency (2011) Development of methodology to eliminate contradictions between CLC-change (1900–2000) and CLC-change (2000–2006) (Technical report). https://land.copernicus.eu/user-corner/technical-library/Change_harmonization_report_final.pdf. Accessed 22 Feb 2018
European Environment Agency (2018) CLC 1990 (dataset), CLC 2000 (dataset), CLC 2006 (dataset), CLC 2012 (dataset). European Union, copernicus land monitoring service. https://land.copernicus.eu/pan-european/corine-land-cover. Accessed 15 Feb 2018
Feranec J, Hazeu G, Christensen S, Jaffrain G (2007) Corine land cover change detection in Europe (case studies of the Netherlands and Slovakia). Land Use Policy 24(1):234–247. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2006.02.002
Feranec J, Jaffrain G, Soukup T, Hazeu G (2010) Determining changes and flows in European landscapes 1990–2000 using CORINE land cover data. Appl Geogr 30(1):19–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2009.07.003
Foody GM (2010) Assessing the accuracy of land cover change with imperfect ground reference data. Remote Sens Environ 114(10):2271–2285. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2010.05.003
Freire S, Santos T, Tenedório JA (2009) Recent urbanization and land use/land cover change in Portugal - the influence of coastline and coastal urban centers. Journal of Coastal Research, (SPEC ISSUE) 56:1499–1503
Haines-Young R (2009) Land use and biodiversity relationships. Land Use Policy 26(1):S178–S186. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2009.08.009
Lavalle C, Silva F, Baranzelli C, Jacobs-Crisioni C, Vandecasteele I, Barbosa A, Maes J, Zulian G, Perpiñá C, Barranco R, Vallecillo S (2016) Chapter 24, land use and scenario modeling for integrated sustainability assessment: CORINE land cover data. In: Feranec J, Soukup T, Hazeu G, Jaffrain G (eds) European landscape dynamics. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp 237–262. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781315372860-25
Martínez-Fernández J, Ruiz-Benito P, Zavala MA (2015) Recent land cover changes in Spain across biogeographical regions and protection levels: implications for conservation policies. Land Use Policy 44:62–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2014.11.021
Nicholls RJ, Woodroffe C, Burkett V (2009) Coastline degradation as an indicator of global change - chapter 24. In: Letcher TM (ed) Climate change. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 409–424. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-444-53301-2.00024-5
Observatorio de la sostenibilidad (2016) Cambios de ocupación en la costa en España 1987–2011. http://www.observatoriosostenibilidad.com/documentos/COSTA%2016v01_a.pdf. Accessed 15 Feb 2018
Ojeda Zújar J, Díaz Cuevas MP, Prieto Campos A, Álvarez Francoso JI (2013) Línea de costa y sistemas de información geográfica: modelo de datos para la caracterización y cálculo de indicadores en la costa andaluza. Investigaciones geográficas (60):37–52. https://doi.org/10.14198/INGEO2013.60.02
Pontius RG, Lippitt CD (2006) Can error explain map differences over time? Cartogr Geogr Inf Sci 33(2):159–171. https://doi.org/10.1559/152304006777681706
Ruiz-Benito P, Cuevas JA, Bravo R, Garcia-del-Barrio JM, Zavala MA (2010) Land use change in a Mediterranean metropolitan region and its periphery: assessment of conservation policies through CORINE land cover data and Markov models. Forest Syst 19(3):315–328. https://doi.org/10.5424/fs/2010193-8604
Saura S (2002) Effects of minimum mapping unit on land cover data spatial configuration and composition. Int J Remote Sens 23(22):4853–4880. https://doi.org/10.1080/01431160110114493
Silva FB, Lavalle C, Koomen E (2013) A procedure to obtain a refined European land use/cover map. J Land Use Sci 8(3):255–283. https://doi.org/10.1080/1747423X.2012.667450
Vihervaara P, Auvinen A-P, Mononen L, Törmä M, Ahlroth P, Anttila S, Böttcher K, Forsius M, Heino J, Heliölä J, Koskelainen M, Kuussaari M, Meissner K, Ojala O, Tuominen S, Viitasalo M, Virkkala R (2017) How essential biodiversity variables and remote sensing can help national biodiversity monitoring. Global Ecology and Conservation 10:43–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2017.01.007
Villa G, Valcarcel N, Arozarena A, Garcia-Asensio L, Caballero ME, Porcuna A, … Peces JJ (2008) Land cover classifications: an obsolete paradigm. In XXIst ISPRS Congress - Technical Commission IV (pp. 609–614). Beijing, China. http://www.isprs.org/proceedings/XXXVII/congress/4_pdf/108.pdf. Accessed 2 Jan 2018
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ovejero-Campos, A., Fernández, E., Ramos, L. et al. Methodological limitations of CLC to assess land cover changes in coastal environments. J Coast Conserv 23, 657–673 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11852-019-00696-w
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11852-019-00696-w