SA National Land-Cover Datasets

What is land cover data and what does it do?

Land cover is the physical material at the surface of earth and includes water, vegetation, bare soil, and artificial structures. Land cover data is a crucial reference dataset that informs a wide variety of activities ranging from environmental planning and protection, economic development, compliance monitoring, enforcement, and strategic decision making. 

National Land Cover Project

The National Land Cover Project developed a fully automated, operational process for the production of future national land-cover data for South Africa, based on the gazetted South African Land Cover Classes and definitions approved in terms of the Spatial data Infrastructure Act No. 54 of 2003. The Computer Automated Land cover (CALC) system was developed with the ability to create automated land cover datasets, accuracy assessments and change detection between comparable land cover datasets with supporting reports and metadata. The CALC system has been used to generate the 2018, 2020 and 2022 South African National Land Cover (SANLC) datasets and all associated change assessments. 

Change Assessment

All SANLC change assessments and reporting is based on a simplified 20 x class change reporting legend. This change reporting legend is derived from the original 73 x class legend, and represents a series of original-class groupings and amalgamations designed to improve and understanding of key landscape changes and the reporting thereof.

 2022 South African National Land Cover and Land Cover Change Data Launch                                                                  

The Launch was virtually attended by almost 400 stakeholders and interested parties.

Recording (MP4) of the meeting available from this link.

DATA DOWNLOAD   

South African National Land Cover (SANLC), 2022

South African National Land Cover (SANLC) Change Assessment Datasets

Please note that Gauteng and the North-West provincial boundaries were corrected for all the change assessment years. The previous change assessments used an older provincial boundary, which has now been corrected.

Date Updated: 23 May 2024

South African National Land Cover (SANLC), 2020

South African National Land Cover (SANLC), 2018

South African National Land Cover (SANLC) 2013-14, 35 Classes

South African National Land Cover (SANLC) Thematic Data 2013-14, 72 Classes

South African National Land Cover (SANLC) 1990, 35 Classes

South African National Land Cover (SANLC) 1990, 72 Classes

For Land Cover enquiries contact Zakariyyaa Oumar at ZOumar@dffe.gov.za