Geography
Document Type
Article
Abstract
An unprecedented collection of 2161 geolocated, irregularly spaced field observations of land cover spanning ∼106 km2 throughout West Siberia suggests that currently available land cover classification products are remarkably poor indicators of vegetation type and water body extent in this northern Welland environment. The ground-truth data are compared with (1) the Global Land Cover Characteristics database derived from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer data (GLCC.AVHRR), (2) the Global Land Cover Classification derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer data (GLCC.MODIS), (3) the Global Lakes and Wetlands Database (GLWD), and (4) the West Siberian Lowland Peatland Database (WSLPD) using: (1) all land cover categories and (2) permanent wetland and water body categories only. Overall agreement with ground observations of land cover is only 21% for the GLCC.AVHRR database and 11% for the GLCC.MODIS database. However, at a much broader scale (one degree of latitude) there is improved qualitative agreement between vegetation classes, with some notable exceptions: (1) at low latitudes (∼54°N-58°N), both the GLCC.AVHRR and GLCC.MODIS databases underestimate woody savannas in favor of croplands; (2) at midlatitudes (∼58°N-64°N), the GLCC.AVHRR database underestimates evergreen needleleaf forest in favor of mixed forest; and (3) at high latitudes (∼64°N-68°N), both the GLCC.AVHRR and GLCC.MODIS databases underestimate deciduous needleleaf forest in favor of woody savannas or open shrublands, respectively. It is clear that all four data databases significantly underestimate permanent wetlands and water bodies, although those specifically developed for this purpose (GLWD and WSPLD) perform better than the more widely used, multiclass land cover products. For permanent wetlands, agreement with our ground data is only 2% for GLCC.MODIS, 23% for GLCC.AVHRR, 45% for GLWD and 56% for WSLPD. Agreement with open water bodies is even poorer (0-5%). These results raise into question the efficacy of incorporating currently available land cover products into terrestrial ecosystem models in northern wetland environments. Copyright 2007 by the American Geophysical Union.
Publication Title
Global Biogeochemical Cycles
Publication Date
3-1-2007
Volume
21
Issue
1
First Page
1
Last Page
15
ISSN
0886-6236
DOI
10.1029/2006GB002706
Keywords
Siberia, Russia, vegetation surveys, wetlands, radiometers, meteorlogical instruments, radiation measurement instruments, landforms, aquatic resources
Repository Citation
Frey, Karen E. and Smith, Laurence C., "How well do we know northern land cover? Comparison of four global vegetation and wetland products with a new ground-truth database for West Siberia" (2007). Geography. 246.
https://commons.clarku.edu/faculty_geography/246
Copyright Conditions
Frey, Karen E., and Laurence C. Smith. "How well do we know northern land cover? Comparison of four global vegetation and wetland products with a new ground‐truth database for West Siberia." Global biogeochemical cycles 21.1 (2007).
