Crop Mask Title:
South African National Land-Cover 2018 (SANLC)

Coverage:
South Africa

Spatial resolution:
20 meters

Satellite:
Sentinel 2A and 2B

Year:
Imagery from January 1-December 31, 2018

Version:
Version 004, September 25, 2019

Organization:
Produced by GeoTerra Image (GTI) Pty Ltd (Mark Thompson) for Department of Environment (DEA), South Africa.

Resource Contact:
Mark Thompson, GeoTerra Image,
www.geoterraimage.com
mark.thompson@geoterraimage.com
Dr. Zakariyyaa Oumar, Department of Environment, Forestry & Fishery
zoumar@environment.gov.za

Resource Abstract:
Raster-based land-cover dataset representing the full South African landscape for the full year 2018. Derived from 20m Sentinel 2 imagery acquired between 01 January2018 and 31 December 2018. Land-cover information classes based on new Gazetted land-cover standards and legend content used in 2013-14 national land-cover data. All land-cover and land-use classes generated using automated modelling procedures for full operational repeatability and change detection.

Resource Classification Categories:
SANLC 2018 Landcover legend for agriculture classes

  1. Cultivated Commercial Permanent Orchards: Active or recently active cultivated lands used for the production of agricultural crops, in this case specifically associated with commercial orchards consisting of tree and/or bush based plants. Plants remain in-field for multiple growing seasons and harvests. Often irrigated.

  2. Cultivated Commercial Permanent Vines: Active or recently active cultivated lands used for the production of agricultural crops, in this case specifically associated with commercial viticulture. The plants remain in-field for multiple growing seasons and harvests. Often irrigated.

  3. Cultivated Commercial Sugarcane Pivot Irrigated: Active or recently active cultivated lands used for the production of agricultural crops, in this case specifically associated with commercial sugarcane, The plants may in-field for multiple growing seasons and harvests, and are grown in pivot irrigated fields.

  4. Commercial Permanent (Pineapples): Active or recently active cultivated lands used for the production of agricultural crops, in this case specifically associated with pineapples. The plants remain in-field for multiple growing seasons and harvests. Typically rainfed.

  5. Cultivated Commercial Sugarcane Non-Pivot (all other): Active or recently active cultivated lands used for the production of agricultural crops, in this case specifically associated with commercial sugarcane, The plants may in-field for multiple growing seasons and harvests, and are grown in both rainfed and (non-pivot) irrigated fields.

  6. Cultivated Emerging Farmer Sugarcane Non-Pivot (all other): Active or recently active cultivated lands used for the production of agricultural crops, in this case specifically associated with small-scale / emerging farmer sugarcane. The plants may remain in-field for multiple growing seasons. Can be irrigated or rainfed.

  7. Cultivated Commercial Annuals Pivot Irrigated: Active or recently active cultivated lands used for the production of agricultural crops, in this case specifically associated with commercial annual crops, although occasionally (undetected) permanent crops.The plants only remain in the field for one growing seasons and one harvest, and are grown in pivot irrigated fields.Note that with certain crops, for example potatoes, the pivot structures are rotated cyclically through specific field locations; with the result that the depicted pivot locations in the NLC dataset can represent both current, active pivots, as well as image-detectable pivot patterns from recent, but currently in-active or over-planted pivots, that will be re-established as pivots in 2 –3 years.

  8. Cultivated Commercial Annuals Non-Pivot Irrigated: Active or recently active cultivated lands used for the production of agricultural crops, in this case specifically associated with commercial annual crops, The plants only remain in the field for one growing seasons and one harvest, and are grown in fields irrigated using non-pivot methods, such as pipelines etc. Note that the extent of non-pivot irrigation activities has been determined by detecting individual fields that contain a significant green crop cover during the seasonal dry periods in summer or winter rainfall areas.

  9. Cultivated Commercial Annuals Non-Pivot/Non-Irrigated: Active or recently active cultivated lands used for the production of agricultural crops, in this case specifically associated with commercial annual crops, The plants only remain in the field for one growing seasons and one harvest, and are grown non-irrigated, rainfed fields.

  10. Subsistence Annual Crops: Active or recently active cultivated lands used for the production of agricultural crops, in this case specifically associated with small-scale commercial or subsistence-level annual crops, The plants only remain in the field for one growing seasons and one harvest, and are grown non-irrigated, rainfed fields.

Reprocessing for MODIS-GLAM (250-meter) applications:
Reprocessing and resampling steps follow:

  1. Pixel values ranging from 39 through 41 (commercial and subsistence cultivation) were set to a binary value of 1.
  2. Above binary data set was resampled from 20-meters to 250-meters spatial resolution.

Resource URL:
https://www.environment.gov.za/projectsprogrammes/egis_landcover_datasets

Download URL:
https://egis.environment.gov.za/data_egis/data_download/current

Resource Citations:
Thompson, Mark, 2019. South African National Land-Cover 2018 Report & Accuracy Assessment, GeoTerraImage SA, Version 004, 25-09-2019