{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,27]],"date-time":"2026-01-27T09:05:52Z","timestamp":1769504752037,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":21,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,17]],"date-time":"2022-03-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1647475200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"European Union DG International Partnerships under the DeSIRA programme through the ESSA (Earth observation and environmental sensing for climate-smart sustainable agropastoral ecosystem transformation in East Africa) project","award":["FOOD\/2020\/418-132"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["FOOD\/2020\/418-132"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Data"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Taita Taveta County (TTC) is one of the world\u2019s biodiversity hotspots in the highlands with some of the world\u2019s megafaunas in the lowlands. Detailed mapping of the terrestrial ecosystem of the whole county is of global significance for biodiversity conservation. Here, we present a land cover map for 2020 based on satellite observations, a machine learning algorithm, and a reference database for accuracy assessment. For the land cover map production processing chain, temporal metrics from Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 (such as median, quantiles, and interquartile range), vegetation indices from Sentinel-2 (normalized difference vegetation index, tasseled cap greenness, and tasseled cap wetness), topographic metrics (elevation, slope, and aspect), and mean annual rainfall were used as predictors in the gradient tree boost classification model. Reference sample points which were collected in the field were used to guide the collection of additional reference sample points based on high spatial resolution imagery for training and validation of the model. The accuracy of the land cover map and uncertainty of area estimates at 95% confidence interval were assessed using sample-based statistical inference. The land cover map has an overall accuracy of 81 \u00b1 2.3% and it is freely accessible for land use planners, conservation managers, and researchers.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/data7030036","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,20]],"date-time":"2022-03-20T21:26:22Z","timestamp":1647811582000},"page":"36","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":30,"title":["Land Cover Map for Multifunctional Landscapes of Taita Taveta County, Kenya, Based on Sentinel-1 Radar, Sentinel-2 Optical, and Topoclimatic Data"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"7","author":[{"given":"Temesgen Alemayehu","family":"Abera","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 68, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland"},{"name":"Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research, Faculty of Science, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 4, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6425-8604","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ilja","family":"Vuorinne","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 68, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland"},{"name":"Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research, Faculty of Science, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 4, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland"}]},{"given":"Martha","family":"Munyao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 68, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland"},{"name":"Kenya Wildlife Service, P.O. Box 40241, Nairobi 00100, Kenya"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5996-9268","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Petri K. E.","family":"Pellikka","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 68, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland"},{"name":"Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research, Faculty of Science, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 4, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland"},{"name":"State Key Laboratory for Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3899-8860","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Janne","family":"Heiskanen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 68, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"312","DOI":"10.1017\/S0376892911000191","article-title":"Delimiting tropical mountain ecoregions for conservation","volume":"38","author":"Platts","year":"2011","journal-title":"Environ. Conserv."},{"key":"ref_2","first-page":"221","article-title":"Airborne remote sensing of spatiotemporal change (1955\u22122004) in indigenous and exotic forest cover in the Taita Hills, Kenya","volume":"11","author":"Pellikka","year":"2009","journal-title":"Int. J. Appl. Earth Obs. Geoinf."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"178","DOI":"10.1016\/j.apgeog.2018.03.017","article-title":"Impact of land cover change on aboveground carbon stocks in Afromontane landscape in Kenya","volume":"94","author":"Pellikka","year":"2018","journal-title":"Appl. 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