CURRENT CHALLENGES IN OPERATIONAL VERY HIGH RESOLUTION LAND-COVER MAPPING

Abstract. Many land-cover products have been made available for a large range of end-users over the last ten years, even at global scales. In particular, remote sensing data analysis has proved to be the most feasible solution for automation purposes, at multiple spatial scales. However, current solutions are not sufficient for designing better products, adapted to real-case applications, operational constraints, and the generation of services, built upon these core layers. In this paper, we review the main requirements and the recent changes in remote sensing for the specific case of very high resolution land-cover mapping. We also comment current and evaluate challenges for the optimal exploitation of Earth Observation images with the aim of automatically generating maps tailored to specific end-users’ needs. We advocate for more challenging large-scale benchmarks and for human-in-the-loop solutions.