Copernicus Grassland Italy — Dataset

The High Resolution Layer — Grassland is a dataset produced under the Pan-European component of Copernicus Land Use and Coverage Monitoring Services (CLMS). It refers to the year 2015 and was produced using high-resolution multitemporal and multispectral satellite data, in particular Sentinel-2A, Sentinel-1A and B and Landsat 8, as well as available auxiliary data. Grassland layer (GRA), which is the main product, has a binary type classification (0-1) and provides information on the presence or non-existence of grassland cover defined as herbaceous vegetation with at least 30 % soil cover, of which at least 30 % grass species. The grassland product may contain non-woody plants such as lichens, musks and ferns in addition to not more than 10 % of scattered shrubs and trees. Two additional products (for experienced users) complete the HRL Grassland: the Grassland Vegetation Probability Index (GRAVPI) which provides a measure of the reliability of the classification (low values indicate that the time series of input data is limited) and the Ploughing Indicator (PLOUGH) which focuses on time series of land cover in order to indicate ploughing activities in previous years. All products have a spatial resolution of 20 meters, the GRA has a minimum cartographic unit (MMU) of 1 ha, the GRAVPI and the PLOUGH of 20 meters. Only GRA is also available in the aggregated version at 100 meters of resolution. The frequency of data update is 3 years. The production of HRL Grassland and additional products was coordinated by the European Environment Agency within the European Copernicus programme involving the National Reference Centres on Land Cover of the Eionet network (for Italy, represented by ISPRA). Further information can be found at https://land.copernicus.eu/pan-european/high-resolution-layers/grassland.