CORINE Land Cover (CLC) was specified to standardize data collection on land in Europe to support environmental policy development. The reference year of first CLC inventory was 1990 (CLC1990), and the first update created in 2000. Later the update cycle has become 6 years. The number of participating countries has increased over time − currently includes 33 European Environment Agency (EEA) member countries and six cooperating countries (EEA39) with a total area of over 5.8 Mkm2. Ortho-corrected high spatial resolution satellite images provide the geometrical and thematic basis for mapping. In-situ data (topographic maps, ortho-photos and ground survey data) are essential ancillary information. The project is coordinated by the EEA in the frame of the EU Copernicus programme and implemented by national teams under the management and quality control (QC) of the EEA. The basic technical parameters of CLC (i.e. 44 classes in nomenclature, 25 hectares minimum mapping unit (MMU) and 100 meters minimum mapping width) have not changed since the beginning, therefore the results of the different inventories are comparable. The layer of CORINE Land Cover Changes (CLCC) is produced since the second CLC inventory (CLC2000). CLCC is derived from satellite imagery by direct mapping of changes taken place between two consecutive inventories, based on image-to-image comparison. Change mapping applies a 5 ha MMU to pick up more details in CLCC layer than in CLC status layer. Integration of national CLC and CLCC data includes some harmonization along national borders. Two European validation studies have shown that the achieved thematic accuracy is above the specified minimum (85 %). Primary CLC and CLCC data are in vector format with polygon topology. Derived products in raster format are also available. The seamless European CLC and CLCC time series data (CLC1990, CLC2000, CLC2006, CLC2012 and related CLCC data) are distributed in the standard European Coordinate Reference System defined by the European Terrestrial Reference System 1989 (ETRS89) datum and Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area (LAEA) projection (EPSG: 3035). Results of the CLC inventories can be downloaded from Copernicus Land site free of charge for all users. CLC data can contribute to a wide range of studies with European coverage, e.g.: ecosystem mapping, modelling the impacts of climate change, landscape fragmentation by roads, abandonment of farm land and major structural changes in agriculture, urban sprawl, water management.

CORINE Land Cover (CLC) data are produced from 1986 for European countries. Altogether four mapping inventories were implemented in this period, producing four status layers (CLC1990, CLC2000, CLC2006, CLC2012) and three CLC-change (CLCC) layers for three periods (1990-2000, 2000-2006, 2006-2012). To eliminate several inconsistencies from the usage of 100m raster version of original CLC data in the accounting systems at EEA, like Land and Ecosystem Accounting (LEAC), which uses a 1km grid (CUBE) base for calculation, a harmonization method were elaborated for the CLC and CLCC data. The applied solution for the harmonization combines CLC status and change layers in the 100m raster form in order to create homogeneous quality time series of CLC / CLC-change layers for accounting purposes. The so called "CLC accounting layers" fulfilling the relation: CLC-change = Modified CLC_ new status – Modified CLC old status. The modification method maximizes compatibility of “backdated” CLC status layers with CLC2012 and each other. However this simple solution causes several issues to be solved: (1) Modified CLC layers loose statistical comparability with original CLC layers, because of increased geometry; smaller than 25ha MMU features will appear locally where changes appear. In case of some CLC classes this causes significant differences. (2) “Fake features” are appearing in the backdated CLC status layers due to inconsistencies between CLC-change datasets. CLC2012 is the fourth CORINE Land Cover inventory and took three years to finalize. A dual coverage of satellite images were used. Computer Assisted Photo-Interpretation (CAPI) was the dominating mapping technology. The number of countries using advanced (bottom-up) solutions has slightly increased. All of the EEA39 countries have participated within the official lifetime of the project.

The present 100m raster dataset is the 2012 CLC status layer modified for the purpose of consistent statistical analysis in the land cover change accounting system at EEA. CORINE Land Cover (CLC) data are produced from 1986 for European (EEA member or cooperating) countries. Altogether five mapping inventories were implemented in this period, producing five status layers (CLC1990, CLC2000, CLC2006, CLC2012, CLC2018) and four CLC-Change (CLCC) layers for the corresponding periods (1990-2000, 2000-2006, 2006-2012, 2012-2018). Pan-European CLC and CLCC data are available as vector and raster products. Due to the technical characteristics of CLC and CLCC data, the evolution in CLC update methodology and in quality of input data, time-series statistics derived directly from historical CLC data includes several inconsistencies. In order to create a statistically solid basis for CLC-based time series analysis, a harmonization methodology was elaborated.

The dataset represents the administrative boundaries of the 39 EEA countries at various aggregation level: Country (NUTS0), NUTS1, NUTS2, and NUTS3 regions. The dataset is created in raster format with a spatial resolution of 100m grid size. Spatial extent of the dataset is adjusted to the latest Corine Land Cover product [Corine Land Cover 2012 (raster 100m) - version 18, Sep. 2016]. Administrative boundaries were derived from the EUROSTAT GISCO dataset [European Commission, Eurostat (ESTAT), GISCO -Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics 2016 (NUTS), Mar. 2018], EuroGeographics product [EuroBoundaryMap (full European coverage) - version 12, Jan. 2018], and coastal areas were derived from the Economic Exclusive Zone dataset [version 10.0 available in marineregions.org]. This dataset is created as a reference layer for performing spatial analysis and calculating statistics at country level for the European territory as needed by accounting activities such as Land and Ecosystem Accounting (LEAC).

Corine Land Cover 2012 (CLC2012) is one of the Corine Land Cover (CLC) datasets produced within the frame the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service referring to land cover / land use status of year 2012. CLC service has a long-time heritage (formerly known as "CORINE Land Cover Programme"), coordinated by the European Environment Agency (EEA). It provides consistent and thematically detailed information on land cover and land cover changes across Europe. CLC datasets are based on the classification of satellite images produced by the national teams of the participating countries - the EEA members and cooperating countries (EEA39). National CLC inventories are then further integrated into a seamless land cover map of Europe. The resulting European database relies on standard methodology and nomenclature with following base parameters: 44 classes in the hierarchical 3-level CLC nomenclature; minimum mapping unit (MMU) for status layers is 25 hectares; minimum width of linear elements is 100 metres. Change layers have higher resolution, i.e. minimum mapping unit (MMU) is 5 hectares for Land Cover Changes (LCC), and the minimum width of linear elements is 100 metres. The CLC service delivers important data sets supporting the implementation of key priority areas of the Environment Action Programmes of the European Union as e.g. protecting ecosystems, halting the loss of biological diversity, tracking the impacts of climate change, monitoring urban land take, assessing developments in agriculture or dealing with water resources directives. CLC belongs to the Pan-European component of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (https://land.copernicus.eu/), part of the European Copernicus Programme coordinated by the European Environment Agency, providing environmental information from a combination of air- and space-based observation systems and in-situ monitoring. Additional information about CLC product description including mapping guides can be found at https://land.copernicus.eu/user-corner/technical-library/. CLC class descriptions can be found at https://land.copernicus.eu/user-corner/technical-library/corine-land-cover-nomenclature-guidelines/html/.

Corine Land Cover 2012 (CLC2012) is one of the Corine Land Cover (CLC) datasets produced within the frame the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service referring to land cover / land use status of year 2012. CLC service has a long-time heritage (formerly known as "CORINE Land Cover Programme"), coordinated by the European Environment Agency (EEA). It provides consistent and thematically detailed information on land cover and land cover changes across Europe. CLC datasets are based on the classification of satellite images produced by the national teams of the participating countries - the EEA members and cooperating countries (EEA39). National CLC inventories are then further integrated into a seamless land cover map of Europe. The resulting European database relies on standard methodology and nomenclature with following base parameters: 44 classes in the hierarchical 3-level CLC nomenclature; minimum mapping unit (MMU) for status layers is 25 hectares; minimum width of linear elements is 100 metres. Change layers have higher resolution, i.e. minimum mapping unit (MMU) is 5 hectares for Land Cover Changes (LCC), and the minimum width of linear elements is 100 metres. The CLC service delivers important data sets supporting the implementation of key priority areas of the Environment Action Programmes of the European Union as e.g. protecting ecosystems, halting the loss of biological diversity, tracking the impacts of climate change, monitoring urban land take, assessing developments in agriculture or dealing with water resources directives. CLC belongs to the Pan-European component of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (https://land.copernicus.eu/), part of the European Copernicus Programme coordinated by the European Environment Agency, providing environmental information from a combination of air- and space-based observation systems and in-situ monitoring. Additional information about CLC product description including mapping guides can be found at https://land.copernicus.eu/user-corner/technical-library/. CLC class descriptions can be found at https://land.copernicus.eu/user-corner/technical-library/corine-land-cover-nomenclature-guidelines/html/.

The raster dataset represents the intensity of species disturbance due to human presence along European coastlines. The dataset was created by combining the coastal urbanisation layer derived from Corine Land Cover 2012 (with the percentage of urbanised coastline per EEA 10 km grid cell) and the population density layer based on EUROSTAT NUTS 2016 data (with the population density in the NUTS 3 region corresponding to the coastal EEA 10 km grid cell). The dataset does not cover southern and western Mediterranean Sea, northern Black Sea and northernmost Atlantic Ocean. The dataset was prepared for the combined effect index produced for the ETC/ICM Report 4/2019 "Multiple pressures and their combined effects in Europe's seas" available on: https://www.eionet.europa.eu/etcs/etc-icm/etc-icm-report-4-2019-multiple-pressures-and-their-combined-effects-in-europes-seas-1.