CLCplus Backbone is the new baseline land cover product for Europe that provides comprehensive, seamless and accurate land cover information for multiple domains and applications such as environmental monitoring, land use planning, climate change-related assessments and emergency management. It is designed to complement the well-known CORINE Land Cover time series, which is unique in terms of its time-series length, thematic detail and land use content, consistent change mapping and the widespread user acceptance across Europe. CLCplus Backbone contributes a high-resolution and timely updated continental perspective on land cover status for a given reference year.
CLCplus Backbone is currently being used to support the implementation of the European Union’s Regulation on the Inclusion of Greenhouse Gas emissions and Removals from Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) and is a useful and harmonised tool in the implementation of various environmental policies such as the EU’s Nature Restoration Regulation.