dataset · Europe

Copernicus CORINE Land Cover

The CORINE (coordination of information on the environment) Land Cover (CLC) inventory was initiated in 1985 to standardize data collection on land in Europe to support environmental policy development. The project is coordinated by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in the frame of the EU Copernicus programme and implemented by national teams. The number of participating countries has increased over time currently including 33 (EEA) member countries and six cooperating countries (EEA39) with

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Source details

Licence: proprietary

Evidence quality: 36.8

Listed in gee public catalogue API on 2026-10-16; relevance/value screened (haiku).

Metadata checked: 2026-10-14T13:20:00.000Z

What's in it

Data offered docs-verified: land cover classification (44 CLC classes, band 'landcover') · class names, palette and values as image properties
Coverage docs-verified: Europe: EEA39 (33 EEA member countries and 6 cooperating countries), total area over 5.8M km2 · 1986 to 2018 (inventory assets for 1990, 2000, 2006, 2012, 2018)
Resolution docs-verified: 100 m pixel size (all bands)
Update frequency docs-verified: Approximately every six years since 2000 (inventory years, not annual)
Formats docs-verified: Google Earth Engine ImageCollection (ee.ImageCollection)
Access docs-verified: Free and open under the Copernicus data policy (Regulation (EU) No 1159/2013). Requires Google Earth Engine registration; the docs say Earth Engine is free for research, education and nonprofit use, and do not state terms for commercial consultancy use.

Useful for

Use cases llm-inferred: Land-cover baseline for runoff or curve-number inputs in European catchment and drainage studies · Historic land-cover change screening across 1990, 2000, 2006, 2012 and 2018 inventories for environmental desk studies · Habitat and land-use context mapping (wetlands, forest, grassland, water body classes) for ecological screening
Audience llm-inferred: hydrologists · flood consultants · ecologists · GIS analysts · planners

Limitations

Constraints llm-inferred: Covers Europe (EEA39) only; the docs do not state UK coverage · Minimum mapping unit of 25 hectares and minimum mapping width of 100 m, so smaller features are not mapped · Inventory snapshots only, roughly every six years; not annual data · Requires Google Earth Engine access; docs say EE is free for research, education and nonprofit use only · ENTRY licence field says 'proprietary', which conflicts with the docs' open and free access statement; verify before commercial use · Docs give a 1986 start in the summary but a 1990 first reference year and 1989 asset start in the description; check the period before citing it

Evidence

Check upstream coverage, uncertainty and licence before use. Station observations are not forecasts or design levels.