Analysing the inconsistencies of CORINE status layers (CLC) and layers of changes (CHA) (1990-2018) for a Spanish case study

ABSTRACT CORINE Land Cover is one of the most relevant Land Use Cover (LUC) databases in Europe because of its degree of detail and long time series. Although some studies have assessed the uncertainty and inconsistencies of the database for specific years and periods, no work has been found that analyses all the available CORINE time series (1990–2018). In this study, we analyse the inconsistencies of the CORINE time series for a specific Spanish region (Asturias). To this end, we compare and analyse the CORINE status layers (CLC) and the CORINE layers of changes (CHA) for each of the mapped periods: 1990–2000, 2000–2006, 2006–2012, 2012–2018. Results show how CLC and CHA layers provide different information, especially after the change of production of CORINE Spain in 2012. The last two CORINE editions (2012, 2018) show a lot of technical changes that make the use of CLC layers very uncertain. In addition, mixed categories, whose definition is imprecise and, therefore, more uncertain, are behind most of detected change in both types of CORINE layers (CHA, CLC).