Consistency Assessments of the Land Cover Products on the Tibetan Plateau

Land cover (LC) and LC change information are essential data in terrestrial surface research. However, the LC products are highly inconsistent, especially in the mountainous area. Most LC assessment studies focused on the consistency of spatial patterns, while ignoring the consistency of change and elevation heterogeneity. In this article, four LC products were assessed for spatiotemporal consistency on the Tibetan Plateau (TP), including the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer LC (MCD12Q1), the climate change initiative LC (CCI-LC), the 30-meter global land cover (Globeland30) and the multiperiod land use/ LC remote sensing monitoring database in China. The impact of elevation on the consistency of multiple LC products across spatiotemporal scales was further analyzed. The spatial consistency of the three and more products was about 70%, with higher consistency for grassland and bare land and lower consistency for wetland and shrubland on the TP. Globeland30 and CCI-LC were better than others for overall monitoring, with the inconsistency of less than 45% by Google Earth dataset validation. The temporal change consistency of the four LC products was less than 10%. With increasing elevation, the average spatial consistency decreased and the LC change area and temporal change consistency increased. There is a high inconsistency of LC changes on the TP in existing commonly used products, demonstrating the need to develop high-quality LC products in long time series.

Automated summary

This article assesses the spatiotemporal consistency of four LC products on the Tibetan Plateau and analyzes the impact of elevation on their consistency. The results show a high inconsistency of LC changes on the plateau, highlighting the need for high-quality, long time series LC products.