{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,13]],"date-time":"2026-05-13T18:18:16Z","timestamp":1778696296466,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":52,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"15","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,8,1]],"date-time":"2019-08-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1564617600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)","award":["XDA19040301"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["XDA19040301"]}]},{"name":"the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)","award":["QYZDB-SSW-DQC005"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["QYZDB-SSW-DQC005"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Unprecedented human-induced land cover changes happened in China after the Reform and Opening-up in 1978, matching with the era of Landsat satellite series. However, it is still unknown whether Landsat data can effectively support retrospective analysis of land cover changes in China over the past four decades. Here, for the first time, we conduct a systematic investigation on the availability of Landsat data in China, targeting its application for retrospective and continuous monitoring of land cover changes. The latter is significant to assess impact of land cover changes, and consequences of past land policy and management interventions. The total and valid observations (excluding clouds, cloud shadows, and terrain shadows) from Landsat 5\/7\/8 from 1984 to 2017 were quantified at pixel scale, based on the cloud computing platform Google Earth Engine (GEE). The results show higher intensity of Landsat observation in the northern part of China as compared to the southern part. The study provides an overall picture of Landsat observations suitable for satellite-based annual land cover monitoring over the entire country. We uncover that two sub-regions of China (i.e., Northeast China-Inner Mongolia-Northwest China, and North China Plain) have sufficient valid observations for retrospective analysis of land cover over 30 years (1987\u20132017) at an annual interval; whereas the Middle-Lower Yangtze Plain (MLYP) and Xinjiang (XJ) have sufficient observations for annual analyses for the periods 1989\u20132017 and 2004\u20132017, respectively. Retrospective analysis of land cover is possible only at a two-year time interval in South China (SC) for the years 1988\u20132017, Xinjiang (XJ) for the period 1992\u20132003, and the Tibetan Plateau (TP) during 2004\u20132017. For the latter geographic regions, land cover dynamics can be analyzed only at a three-year interval prior to 2004. Our retrospective analysis suggest that Landsat-based analysis of land cover dynamics at an annual interval for the whole country is not feasible; instead, national monitoring at two- or three-year intervals could be achievable. This study provides a preliminary assessment of data availability, targeting future continuous land cover monitoring in China; and the code is released to the public to facilitate similar data inventory in other regions of the world.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs11151808","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,8,1]],"date-time":"2019-08-01T11:39:37Z","timestamp":1564659577000},"page":"1808","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":30,"title":["Are There Sufficient Landsat Observations for Retrospective and Continuous Monitoring of Land Cover Changes in China?"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Yan","family":"Zhou","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China"},{"name":"Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5687-803X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jinwei","family":"Dong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jiyuan","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Graciela","family":"Metternicht","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Wei","family":"Shen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Nanshan","family":"You","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4140-7512","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Guosong","family":"Zhao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0956-7428","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xiangming","family":"Xiao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, and Center for Spatial Analysis, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,8,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"148","DOI":"10.1016\/j.landusepol.2009.07.006","article-title":"From the Holocene to the Anthropocene: A historical framework for land cover change in southwestern South America in the past 15,000 years","volume":"27","author":"Armesto","year":"2010","journal-title":"Land Use Policy"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2223","DOI":"10.1007\/s11430-017-9143-3","article-title":"Continuous land cover change monitoring in the remote sensing big data era","volume":"60","author":"Dong","year":"2017","journal-title":"Sci. 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