Pre-Summer Conjunctural Land Cover Map (COSc): An Innovative Tool for Landscape Management in Portugal

As part of the “Remote Sensing Data for Forest Management” project, developed by the transForm Mobilizing Agenda and funded by the Recovery and Resilience Programme (PRR), the latest version of the Pre-Summer Conjunctural Land Cover Map (COSc) has been released. This cartographic product, developed by the Directorate-General for Territory (DGT), is essential for the Portuguese forestry sector and offers a mid-term update of land use, with a particular focus on forest and scrub areas, ahead of the critical fire season.

COSc Pre-Summer is a direct response to the needs of the forestry sector, which requires up-to-date and accurate information to plan and implement measures to prevent and combat rural fires. Based on data acquired until May 2024, this version incorporates a detailed analysis of changes in vegetation cover using Sentinel-2 satellite images and advanced Machine Learning techniques. The resulting cartography, with a minimum unit size of 0.3 hectares and a spatial resolution of 10 meters, represents a significant advance over previous editions, both in terms of accuracy and timeliness.

This product is an extension of COSc2023, adjusted to reflect the most recent changes in the territory. COSc Pre-Summer includes the monitoring of abrupt vegetation loss in forest and scrub areas, capturing the changes that occurred between October of the previous year and spring of the current year. This information is crucial for fire risk management, allowing for a more effective and informed response by the responsible authorities. For example, COSc Pre-Summer helped produce the ICNF’s 2024 rural fire hazard map.

In addition to improving the forestry sector’s planning and response capacity, COSc Pre-Summer reinforces Agenda transForm’s commitment to using cutting-edge technologies for territorial planning. The integration of remote sensing image analysis methodologies and artificial intelligence in the production of this map underlines the importance of innovation in the sustainable management of natural resources.

With this new version of COSc, the Portuguese forestry sector is better equipped to face the challenges of the fire season, ensuring that decisions are made on the basis of up-to-date and reliable data. The launch of COSc Pre-Summer marks another significant step on the road to more effective and sustainable landscape management in Portugal, reinforcing the importance of continuous and detailed monitoring of the territory.

COSc Pre-Summer is now available from the Land Cover Monitoring System viewer (viSMOS – https://smos.dgterritorio.gov.pt/vi-smos), offering professionals in the sector a vital tool for landscape protection and management.

Find out more at https://snig.dgterritorio.gov.pt/rndg/srv/por/catalog.search#/metadata/e0879e62-ab0c-4396-b71e-112764e226d7