AARS Asia 30-second Land Cover Data Set
with
Ground Truth Information



The Land Cover Working Group(LCWG) of the Asian Association on Remote Sensing(AARS)
and
CEReS, Chiba University, Japan







The main two products in this CD-ROM are

- Asia land cover data set of 30 second resolution in "land.raw" and
- ground truth data of land cover class in "gt.gif" and "gtsc.gif"

The purpose to distribute Asia land cover data set, "land.raw&quot, is to provide land cover information for global change studies and other global/continental applications. The purpose to distribute ground truth data of land cover class, "gt.gif" and "gtsc.gif&quot, is to build Asian ground truth database by improving "gt.gif" and adding new reliable ground truth data of Asia for the development of better land cover data set in the future.

1. Main data sets in the CD-ROM

intro.htm --- this data set
method.htm --- description of the method to develop Asia land cover data set "land.raw"
aars.htm --- introduction of the Asian Association on Remote Sensing(AARS)
lcwg.htm --- introduction of the Land Cover Working Group(LCWG)

land.htm --- description about "land.raw"
land.raw (/data/land.raw) --- land cover data set of Asia with 30 second resolution
land.gif (/data/land.gif) --- colored map of land cover of Asia
legend.gif (/data/legend.gif) --- a legend for "land.gif"
landmain.htm --- colored map of land cover of Asia with hierarchical display

gt.htm --- description about "gt.gif"
gt.gif (/data/gt.gif) --- ground truth data of land cover class
gtcolor.htm --- colored map of ground truth data with hierarchical display
gtphoto.htm --- ground truth photographs
gtsc.htm --- description about "gtsc.gif"
gtsc.gif (/data/gtsc.gif) --- information source of each ground truth data


2.How to use this CD-ROM

if you want to see land cover product, click here(landmain.htm).
if you want to see land cover product by a software such as Photoshop and Paint Shop, open "/data/land.gif"
if you want to see a legend for "land.gif", open "/data/legend.gif".
if you want to copy and use the land cover product, copy "/data/land.raw"
if you want to know the data in land.raw, click here(land.htm).

if you want to see ground truth data, click here(gtcolor.htm).
if you want to copy and use ground truth data, copy "/data/gt.gif" and "/data/gtsc.gif"
if you want to know the data in gt.gif, click here(gt.htm).
if you want to see examples of ground truth photographs, click here(gtphoto.htm).
if you want to know the data in gtsc.gif, click here(gtsc.htm).

if you want to know the method to produce the land cover data set, land.raw, click here(method.htm).
if you want to know the Asian Association on Remote Sensing(AARS), click here(aars.htm).
if you want to know the Land Cover Working Group(LCWG) of the AARS, click here(lcwg.htm).


3. Your contribution

Contribution to add and improve ground truth data is appreciated. It can be sent to Dr. Ryutaro Tateishi of the address at the section 7 of this documentation. Or you can register your ground truth data at the web-site of the Asia-Wide Land Use and Cover (AWLC) Meta-Database. (URL: http://oblbwww.cv.noda.sut.ac.jp/awlc/index.htm )

Your contribution could be the following way.

- Either digital data or paper map is acceptable.
- Ground truth data of land cover should be described either by class code defined in the data set "land.htm" or by contributor's own land cover class name with its definition.
- A region of ground truth should be at least as large as 2.5 minute by 2.5 minute (approximately equivalent to 5km by 5km at the equator) in latitude/longitude with a homogeneous land cover type.
- Four values of latitude/longitude of the north, south, east, and west end of ground truth regions should be included.

If you send information of ground truth, it will be included in the Asia ground truth data base as the next product.


4. Copyright

Any part of this CD-ROM can be copied and distributed as long as the sources: LCWG, AARS and CEReS, Chiba University, are acknowledged.


5. Producers

This CD-ROM is a product of Land Cover Working Group (LCWG) of the Asian Association on Remote Sensing (AARS).

Main producer: Dr. Ryutaro Tateishi, CEReS, Chiba University, Japan
Programming and data processing: Dr. Cheng-Gang Wen, CEReS, Chiba University, Japan
Adviser, data visualization and cover design: Dr. Kithsiri Perera, Weathernews Inc. Japan
CD-ROM file conversion: Mr. Shin Ichihashi, CEReS, Chiba University, Japan


6. Date of the production of this CD-ROM

August 2, 1999


7. Inquiry, comment, or request of additional CD-ROM

Any inquiry, comment, or request are welcome. They should be directed to:

Dr. Ryutaro Tateishi
Center for Environmental Remote Sensing(CEReS)
Chiba University
1-33 Yayoi-cho Inage-ku Chiba 263-8522 Japan
Fax: +81-43-290-3857
Email: tateishi@ceres.cr.chiba-u.ac.jp


8.Acknowledgements

The Institute of Botany and Phytointroduction of Kazakhstan Academy of Science, which has an exchange agreements with CEReS of Chiba University, contributed for field trips for ground truth collection. Prof. Nikolai G. Kharin of the Center on Problems of Ecology and Productivity of Forests, Russian Academy of Science and Prof. Wang Changyao of the Institute of Remote Sensing Application, Chinese Academy of Science, who both visited CEReS of Chiba University for several months as visiting researchers by the program of Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan, were contributed by providing their rich knowledge and experience for ground truth collection. Part of the work to produce this CD-ROM was financially supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) by Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan.