DETECTION OF NORTH AMERICAN LAND COVER CHANGE BETWEEN 2005 AND 2010 WITH 250M MODIS DATA

Land cover and land cover change data are needed for climate change, biodiversity and ecosystem studies. Consistent multi-temporal mapping and monitoring of land cover change over large regions remains to be a challenging task in remote sensing science. The North American Land Change Monitoring System (NALCMS) is a collaborative effort among governmental institutions of Canada, the United States and Mexico to monitor the state of land cover across the North American continent. The initiative is facilitated by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), an international organization created by the ministries of environment of Canada, Mexico, and the United States to promote invironmental collaboration among the three countries. Participating institutions in NALCMS are Natural Resources Canada / Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (NRCan / CCRS), the United States Geological Survey (USGS), and for Mexico the National Institute for Statistics and Geography (INEGI), the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO), and the National Forestry Commission with 19 classes was derived from 250m Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image composites and published in 2010 (Latifovic et al. 2012).