Copernicus Geodatabase for Investigating Land Cover Changes at the European Scale

Copernicus, the European initiative for monitoring the Earth, provides an extensive range of data types that allow consumers, public authorities, and scientists to get free, open, and comprehensive knowledge of the world. Therefore, it is recognized as one of the largest geodatabases storing a great deal of data provided by satellites and in-situ sensors, which are then processed to generate reliable and up-to-date information on a large number of pressing environmental and security concerns. As a result, it could be a valid option for examining the state of landscape and its evolution over time. More knowledge about land changes might assist in developing an effective strategy to tackle the soil sealing phenomena, which is largely caused by climate change and anthropogenic pressure and is being experienced by all European countries. Thus, this study examines how Copernicus earth observation data and geographical services might help with changes in terrain cover at the European level. The land cover change maps were evaluated after looking at all the data, when it was possible to perform this task, while in other cases, Google Earth Engine, a cloud platform designed by Google to manage large geographic data, was used to produce the maps. The benefits and drawbacks of the Copernicus platform have been examined. It proves to be a functional platform for achieving research goals, but it is insufficient for a global study because of the absence of data in many European cities and the low resolution of many of them.