About the workshop
We are organising a production workshop focused on the technology transfer and capacity building of the Forest Research and Training Centre (FRTC) team on the National Land Cover Monitoring System (NLCMS) for Nepal. The production workshop will guide FRTC professionals on deriving land cover ‘primitive’ elements for 2020 and 2021, assembling the data primitives into target land cover classes, and setting explicit accuracy assessment procedures.
Being organised under our SERVIR-HKH Initiative, the five-day event will train FRTC professionals in implementing image processing, developing primitives, data assembly algorithms, accuracy assessment procedures and implications, and document how these procedures can be run at FRTC independently.
Objectives
- Share procedures for creating image composite and land cover primitive classes
- Use Collect Earth Online (CEO) to collect reference data for the development of land cover primitives
- Design, test, and refine procedures for assembling land cover primitives and other information sources into explicit land cover classes
- Specify appropriate accuracy assessment procedures and products that provide critical context to data users. Finalise validation protocols and finalise data collection in Collect Earth Online (CEO) for validation, and
- Refine the NLCMS logic and workflow further to meet identified FRTC needs
Expected participants
Selected professionals (about eight participants) from FRTC, who will work as a core team to continue land cover mapping for Nepal using methods developed for the NLCMS, will attend the training.
Expected outcomes
Upon completion of the workshop, FRTC professionals can independently adopt the NLCMS methods to generate land cover primitives and develop the land cover maps for Nepal for 2020 and 2021, respectively.
Key resource persons
Background
Land cover mapping is the most common application of Earth observation (EO) science, which renders meaningful information about the Earth’s surface. Using land cover data can help policymakers and land managers understand vast landscapes better and observe historical changes over time. An archive of national land cover data is a critical asset, particularly for Nepal.
FRTC with technical support from SERVIR-HKH, a joint initiative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), developed Nepal’s National Land Cover Monitoring System (NLCMS). Collaborators include SERVIR–Mekong at the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), SilvaCarbon, Global Land Analysis, and Discovery (GLAD) group at the University of Maryland, and the US Forest Service.
The NLCMS uses freely available remote-sensing data (Landsat) and a cloud-based machine learning architecture in the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform to generate land cover maps annually using a harmonised and consistent classification system. The system was further customised from ICIMOD’s Regional Land Cover Monitoring System (RLCMS) for Nepal. The NLCMS generates spatially seamless and temporally consistent annual land cover maps of the country. These maps and data will be useful for national and international reporting on forest cover change, preparing a long-term strategy for achieving Nepal’s Nationally Determined Contribution targets, and as a foundational dataset for evidence-based planning and policy development.
