Detailed nationwide land cover map now available in Finland
- Nye releases
We are happy to announce that SCALGO Live in Finland has been updated with a new land cover map covering the entire country.
Join webinar to learn more!
We are organizing a webinar together with SYKE on the 29th of May at 14:00. Sign up here to learn more about how the data has been produced and how it can be used.
A result of several years of development
At SCALGO, we started developing the machine learning model for land cover mapping already back in 2019 together with Aarhus University. Since then, we have continuously developed our method for classifying land cover types from aerial images.
In 2021-2022, we worked closely with the SYKE and HSY to further develop the method and create a national land cover map in Finland. And now the result of this collaboration, a detailed land cover map, can be accessed through SCALGO Live and used interactively for terrain and surface water planning.
A powerful method for detailed mapping
To create the new land cover map, we have combined 4 machine learning models – one model for each of the classes: impervious areas, bare soil (i.e., sand and gravel), shallow vegetation and dense vegetation. The final classification for a given pixel is determined by combining the output from each of the four underlying machine learning models.
These four land cover classes are supplemented with auxiliary data from DigiRoad and Maastotietokanta, to create a map with 10 unique classes, as shown in figure 1.
Figure 1. The new land cover map divides Finland into 10 land cover classes.
Use the data in your surface water planning
The new map is now integrated into SCALGO Live. This means that the watershed tool now summarises land cover for your watershed anywhere in Finland.
Figure 2. The new land cover map is, for example, integrated into the watershed tool.
You can also get information about land cover types on, for example, property level, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3. We have assessed the land cover distribution for each property. In this example, 49 % is other paved, 23 % is buildings and 16 % is dense vegetation.
Want to know more about the data?
Then, remember to sign up for the webinar on May 29th.
You can also contact Helena Åström, Market Manager in Finland, at helena@scalgo.com.
