European Area Frame Sampling Based on Very High Resolution Images

Initiated in 2007, the Area Frame Sampling Europe subtask of the Seasonal and Annual Change Monitoring Service (SATChMo) Core Service in the geoland2 project delivered its final products in 2012. Three of these are described in this paper: (i) an Area Frame Sampling scheme design that aims at optimizing the statistical accuracy when extrapolating a land cover classification at reasonable cost, (ii) a semi-automatic classification tool that is able to discriminate 10 land cover classes on VHR samples with 0.25ha minimum mapping unit (MMU), and (iii) a highly automatized change detection tool based on Multivariate Alteration Detection (MAD) approach that additionally employs Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and texture characteristics. This later step, as well as giving change/no-change mask provides directions of changes in three main categories, artificialization, revegetation, and devegetation. The algorithms were cast into the form of production chains starting with data acquisition and processing, through the main processing to validation and product dissemination via Spatial Data Infrastructure servers. The whole process was tested on representative set of 114 sites from across the European Union (EU).