Thematic classifications are the result of Landsat mosaics processing and interpretation, from which land cover and land use maps are obtained for each year. Within the logic proposed by MapBiomas the maps will be updated every time there is an improvement in the classification algorithms. The classification methodology is dynamic and procedural, with the purpose of improving the classification of each typology.

Here you will be able to access the annual maps of land cover and land use in Colombia organized by region, department, and year.

  1. Online navigation through the MapBiomas data platform: 

https://plataforma.colombia.mapbiomas.org

  1. Direct download of the Land Cover and Land Use maps from Collection 2 in GeoTiff format for each year:

For year 2023 click on the following link:

https://storage.googleapis.com/mapbiomas-public/initiatives/colombia/collection_1/coverage/colombia_coverage_2023.tif

To download maps for other years, just change the year at the end of the link (available from 1985 to 2023).

  1. Download by biome and any other desired geometry using the Toolkit prepared in Google Earth Engine (GEE):

mapbiomas-user-toolkit-lulc*

4. Descarga por bioma y cualquier otra geometría deseada utilizando el Toolkit – MapBiomas Agua preparado en Google Earth Engine (GEE):

mapbiomas-user-toolkit-water*

*To use this tool it is necessary to have an account on the Google Earth Engine (free).

IMPORTANT: when composing a single mosaic or calculating statistics from the maps, you must take into account that:

  • For area calculation, it is necessary to use an adequate metric projection.
  • All data is in GeoTiff format and has LZW compression. 
  • To obtain the reference of the legend codes for each class, click here. here.
  • The annual maps are consolidated in a single file with several bands, where each band represents a year of the historical series (the 1st band corresponds to the first year of the series).
  • The international limits used by MapBiomas are those used by RAISG and may differ from files from other sources. The international boundary file used is available for download in the platform section.