Maps for Good

Areas where water was predominantly present throughout the year; may not cover areas with sporadic or ephemeral water; contains little to no sparse vegetation, no rock outcrop nor built up features like docks; examples: rivers, ponds, lakes, oceans, flooded salt plains.

Any significant clustering of tall (~5 m or higher) dense vegetation, typically with a closed or dense canopy; examples: wooded vegetation, clusters of dense tall vegetation within savannas, plantations, swamp or mangroves (dense/tall vegetation with ephemeral water or canopy too thick to detect water underneath).

Any area of low, non-flooded vegetation with very little-to-no taller (~15m or higher) vegetation, homogeneous or heterogeneous, containing any degree of the following: wild cereals and grasses with no obvious human plotting (i.e. not a plotted field); mix of small clusters of plants or single plants dispersed on a landscape that shows exposed soil or rock; clearings of homogeneous grasses; scrub-filled clearings within dense forests that are clearly not taller than trees; examples: moderate to sparse cover of bushes, shrubs and tufts of grass, savannas with very sparse grasses, trees or other plants.

Areas of any type of vegetation with obvious intermixing of water throughout a majority of the year; seasonally flooded area that is a mix of grass / shrub / trees / bare ground; examples: flooded mangroves, emergent vegetation, rice paddies and other heavily irrigated and inundated agriculture.

Human planted / plotted cereals, grasses, and crops not at tree height; examples: corn, wheat, soy, fallow plots of structured land.

Human made structures; major road and rail networks; large homogenous impervious surfaces including parking structures, office buildings and residential housing; examples: houses, dense villages / towns / cities, paved roads, asphalt.

Areas of rock or soil with very sparse to no vegetation for the entire year; large areas of sand and deserts with no to little vegetation; examples: exposed rock or soil, desert and sand dunes, dry salt flats / pans, dried lake beds, mines.

Large homogenous areas of permanent snow or ice, typically only in mountain areas or highest latitudes; examples: glaciers, permanent snowpack, snow fields.

No land cover information due to persistent cloud cover.