Esri Releases Updated Land-Cover Map with New Sets of Global Data

Many are also working to limit activities that contribute to climate change. To support these efforts, Esri, the global leader in location intelligence, in partnership with Impact Observatory and Microsoft, is releasing a globally consistent 2017–2021 global land-use and land-cover map of the world based on the most up-to-date 10-meter Sentinel-2 satellite data. In addition to the new 2021 data, 10-meter land-use and land-cover data for 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 is included, illustrating five years of change across the planet.

This digital rendering of earth’s surfaces offers detailed information and insights about how land is being used. The map is available online to more than 10 million users of geographic information system (GIS) software through Esri’s ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World, the foremost collection of geographic information and services, including maps and apps.

Esri released a 2020 global land-cover map last year as well as a high-resolution 2050 global land-cover map, showing how earth’s land surfaces might look 30 years from now. With the planned annual releases, users will have the option to make year-to-year comparisons for detecting change in vegetation and crops, forest extents, bare surfaces, and urban areas.

These maps also provide insights about locations with distinctive land use/land cover, as well as human activity affecting them. National government resource agencies use land-use/land-cover data as a basis for understanding trends in natural capital, which helps define land-planning priorities and determine budget allocations.