Satellite monitoring of land, forests and agriculture

Satellite imagery helps assess and monitor the state and development of global land use over time. By comparing past and present images of land cover we can get an overview of the evolution of land pressures such as deforestation, agricultural expansion, urban developments, floodplains and threats to protected areas. This information can help decision makers target effective interventions and policies to ensure the sustainable management of land resources, which is becoming more and more urgent given the growing world population and the increased pressure on land to provide food, fuel and biodiversity habitat and the need to regulate climate. The JRC uses imagery from the American Landsat 8 and the EU’s new Sentinel satellites to monitor and forecast land use, deforestation, forest degradation and crop development.