New land cover data for Nigeria

New data has been published on the Agro-informatics Platform within the Land channel.

This dataset provides a detailed land cover classification for four selected states in Nigeria: Kebbi, Niger, Ondo, and Cross River. It was developed under the Global Environment Facility’s (GEF) Food Systems Integrated Program (FSIP) and Land Use and Restoration Impact Program (FOLUR) for the year 2024.

A national land cover legend has been developed to support GEF projects in Nigeria adapted from the West African Land Cover Reference System. The classification was derived from high-resolution satellite imagery (e.g., Sentinel-2 Multi-spectral Instrument Surface Reflectance Daily Global 30m) and processed using advanced supervised machine learning algorithms, achieving an overall accuracy of 83 percent.

While the classification has currently been applied only to the selected GEF pilot states, the legend is designed to enable nationwide application, facilitating cross-sectoral coordination, sustainable land use planning, and long-term monitoring aligned with GEF objectives.

The data was classified using Sentinel-2 Multi-spectral Instrument Surface Reflectance Daily Global (30 m resolution). A total of 2333 training samples were collected. The land cover map was generated using the Random Forest algorithm.

New land cover data for Nigeria: https://data.apps.fao.org/?lang=en&share=f-06e9ea55-704c-4e3c-8bc7-785dab86906c