MapBiomas

Project

WHAT IS THE MAPBIOMAS COLOMBIA INITIATIVE? 

The “Annual Mapping of Land Cover and Land Use of Colombia” Project is an initiative that involves a collaborative network of specialists in earth sciences, remote sensing, geographic information systems and programming. It uses cloud processing and automated classifiers operated from the Google Earth Engine platform, to generate a historical series of annual land cover and land use maps of the continental surface of Colombia.

ORIGIN

The Gaia Amazonas Foundation is the Colombian representation as a member of the Amazon Network of Georeferenced Socio-Environmental Information (RAISG), where this type of information is generated in a coordinated manner with the other countries in the basin, to achieve the same objectives. Since 2009, within the framework of work with the RAISG, the construction of deforestation maps of the Colombian Amazon began, applying increasingly advanced satellite data processing tools and techniques. In search of new alternatives for the automation of processes and the generation of timely information, in March 2017, the RAISG, in agreement with the General Coordination of MapBiomas Network, created the MapBiomas Amazonía.

Como parte del trabajo conjunto y colaborativo entre las organizaciones socias de la RAISG y MapBiomas Network, Gaia Amazonas ha logrado publicar cinco colecciones para la Amazonia y  la primera colección de Mapas Anuales de Cobertura y Uso del Suelo para el territorio colombiano en el periodo comprendido entre 1985 y 2022. Gracias a este esfuerzo es posible contar con estos mapas en una plataforma interactiva para la iniciativa de MapBiomas Colombia.

PURPOSE

Contribute to the understanding of the dynamics of land use in Colombia based on:

  • The development and implementation of a rapid, reliable and low-cost methodology to generate annual land cover and use maps, from 1985 to the present (with annual updates).
  • Creation of a Web platform to facilitate the dissemination of the methodology and access to the results: Products and Subproducts.
  • Establish a collaborative network of specialists in the different biomes for mapping land cover and use and its dynamics of change.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE INITIATIVE

  • Networking with state, academic and civil society institutions.
  • Distributed and automated data processing through a technological alliance with Google and the Google Earth Engine platform.
  • Work aimed at generating an open and replicable platform.
  • Collaborative platform designed to incorporate and welcome contributions from the interested scientific community.