The global land-cover characteristics database: The users' perspective

A unique global land-cover characteristics database developed by the U.S. G eological Survey has been available to users since mid-1997. Access to the data is through the Internet under the EROS (Earth Resources Observation Sy stems) Data Center's home page (http://edcwww.cr.usgs.gov/landdaac/glcc/glc c.html). Since the release of the database, the data have been incorporated into various environmental research and modeling applications, including m apping global biodiversity, mesoscale climate simulations, carbon cycle mod eling, and estimating habitat destruction. Since the early stages of the pr oject, user feedback has provided a means to understand data utility in app lications, garner suggestions for data improvements, and gain insights into the technical challenges faced by users. Synthesis of user feedback provid ed a means to generate a user profile and derive a list of applications-cri tical criteria for land-cover data. User suggestions have lead to revisions in the database, including label changes, alternative classification schem es, and additional projections for the data.