CORINE

From 1985 to 1990 the European Commission has realised the CORINE Programme (Coordination of Information on the Environment). In 1991 it was decided to extend three main CORINE inventories (Biotopes, Corinair and Land Cover) to the Central and Eastern European countries.

The aim of the European Union’s CORINE Land Cover project is to provide up to date information on land cover at scale 1:100.000 for the whole Europe. The database includes 44 categories in accordance with a standard European nomenclature, organised into five large groups: artificial surfaces, agricultural areas, forest and semi-natural areas, wetlands, water bodies. Classification was done by visual interpretation using Landsat Thematic Mapper satellite image maps with the help of topographic maps as main ancillary material and field work. Following digitization the land cover information is stored in topological structure as ARC/INFO database.
The project started in 1993 in Hungary together with the neighbouring Central and East European countries and finished for Hungary in 1996. The final product has been integrated into the European database and is available for users. Printed maps covering the whole country were produced at scales 1:500.000 and 1:200.000.
An experimental project to derive similar land cover at scale 1:50.000 was also carried out for selected areas. An experimental CORINE Land Cover–Level 4 nomenclature was formulated for Central Europe by experts of the participating countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakian) including 87 categories. Mapping was based on digitally merged Landsat TM and SPOT PAN satellite imagery. Two larger blocks have been mapped (Bükk-Nyírség and Kiskunság) covering about 15% of the country.

In Hungary FÖMI Remote Sensing Centre is responsible for the implementation of the CORINE Land Cover project.

The database was created by interpretation of Landsat TM and SPOT PAN satellite images. Some characteristics of the CORINE databases are as follows:

The project – within the programme “Remoter Sensing and Urban Statistics” of EUROSTAT – was carried out with the collaboration of Hungarian Central Statistical Office and the Local Government of Zugló. The potential of Earth observation data were tested for establishing the standardised digital coverage of urban agglomeration of Budapest according to European nomenclature CLUSTER and the possibilities were analysed to detect changes over time. High-resolution satellite images (IRS-1C and COSMOS KVR-1000) together with digital cadastral boundaries of 78 settlements of the agglomeration were processed and analysed. The CORINE Land Cover technology was adapted and extended for this purpose. Data base according to CLUSTER–level II was created for the entire area of the agglomeration and according CLUSTER–level IV for Zugló district. Based on the results of the computer aided visual classification the delimitation of urban morphological zone has been created.