Levin, G. 2019. Basemap03. Technical documentation of the method for elaboration of a land-use and land-cover map for Denmark. Aarhus University, DCE – Danish Centre for Environment and Energy, 86 pp. Technical Report No. 159. http://dce2.au.dk/pub/TR159.pdf
As a response to a lack of an up-to-date nationwide map of land use and land cover for Denmark, Aarhus University and Copenhagen University produced the first version of Basemap in 2011 (Levin et al., 2012). The novelty of the Basemap was that it combined existing thematic geographic information into one land-use/land-cover map for Denmark. Furthermore, Basemap was dynamic in the sense that spatial modelling and input data could be adapted to different purposes and research needs. The first version of Basemap has been widely applied in research and advisory projects by research institutions, public agencies and private companies. In 2016, Statistics Denmark financed an updated version of the Basemap for the year 2016 (Levin et al., 2017). This second version was different in the sense that most of the original input information was included in the final map. In other words, for most input data, the original object IDs were included in the map, ensuring the possibility to link objects and thus land use/land cover information with relevant information from other registers, such as the agriculture registers, the register from the central office of civil registration, the building and housing register and the central business register. For instance, for information derived from agricultural census data Basemap02 includes the possibility to link to other farm and parcel specific information, such as animal husbandry (number of animals), land use management (e.g. application of manure, fertiliser and agro-chemicals) and agro-environmental subsidies. In 2019, Statistics Denmark decided to finance a third version of Basemap. Basemap03 is based on spatial information for the year 2018 and it largely follows the methodology of the previous version. However, this third version includes several subclasses, such as tree cover, giving the opportunity to include more combined land use and land cover classes than in the earlier versions. Furthermore, in order to enable comparison over time Basemap03 also includes an updated version for the years 2011 and 2016, which in terms of applied data and methodologies are consistent with Basemap03 for 2018.
