Abstract
Brazil, with more than 8 million km <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> , presents six different biomes, ranging from natural grasslands (Pampa biome) to tropical rainfall forests (Amazônia biome), with different land-use types (mostly pasturelands and croplands) and pressures (mainly in the Cerrado biome). The objective of this article is to present a new method to discriminate the most representative land use and land cover (LULC) classes of Brazil, based on the PROBA-V images. The images were converted into vegetation, soil, and shade fraction images by applying the linear spectral mixing model. Then, the pixel-based, highest proportion, annual mosaics of the fraction images, and their corresponding standard deviation images were derived and classified using the random forest algorithm. The following LULC classes were considered: forestlands, shrublands, grasslands, croplands, pasturelands, water bodies, and others. An agreement analysis was conducted with two available LULC maps derived from the Landsat satellite, the MapBiomas, and the Finer Resolution Observation and Monitoring-Global Land Cover (FROM-GLC) projects. Forestlands (412 million ha) and pasturelands (242 million ha) were the two most representative LULC classes; and croplands accounted for 30 million ha. The results presented an overall agreement of 69% and 58% with the MapBiomas and FROM-GLC projects, respectively. The proposed method is a good alternative to support operational projects of LULC map production that are important for planning biodiversity conservation or environmentally sustainable land occupation.
Highlights
L AND use and land cover (LULC) changes are driven by a combination of five main factors [1]: increasing pressureManuscript received February 28, 2020; revised April 24, 2020; accepted May 11, 2020
Croplands accounted for 30 million hectares, with the Cerrado biome contributing with 15 million hectares, i.e., approximately 50% of the national croplands, which is consistent with previous reports in terms of that Cerrado biome contribute with approximately half of grain production in Brazil [64]
The analysis showed that the main agreements were observed in forestland, water body, and cropland, as expected due to the dissimilarity between different LULC classes, leading to easier identification
Summary
L AND use and land cover (LULC) changes are driven by a combination of five main factors [1]: increasing pressure. Manuscript received February 28, 2020; revised April 24, 2020; accepted May 11, 2020. Date of publication May 28, 2020; date of current version June 29, 2020.
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