{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,25]],"date-time":"2025-10-25T19:04:11Z","timestamp":1761419051447,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2016,6,23]],"date-time":"2016-06-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1466640000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Gebhardt et al. (2014) presented the Monitoring Activity Data for the Mexican REDD+ program (MAD-MEX), an automatic nation-wide land cover monitoring system for the Mexican REDD+ MRV. Though MAD-MEX represents a valuable first effort toward establishing a national reference emissions level for the implementation of REDD+ in Mexico, in this paper, we argue that this land cover system has important limitations that may prevent it from becoming operational for REDD+ MRV. Specifically, we show that (1) the accuracy assessment of MAD-MEX land cover maps is optimistically biased; (2) the ability of MAD-MEX to monitor land cover change, including deforestation and forest degradation; is poor and (3) the use of an entirely automatic classification approach, such as that followed by MAD-MEX, is highly problematic in the case of a large and heterogeneous country like Mexico. We discuss these limitations and call into question the ability of a land cover monitoring system, such as MAD-MEX, both to elaborate a national reference emissions level and to monitor future forest cover change, as part of a REDD+ MRV system. We provide some insights with the aim of improving the development of nation-wide land cover monitoring systems in Mexico and elsewhere.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs8070533","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2016,6,24]],"date-time":"2016-06-24T11:03:11Z","timestamp":1466766191000},"page":"533","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":11,"title":["Comment on Gebhardt et al. MAD-MEX: Automatic Wall-to-Wall Land Cover Monitoring for the Mexican REDD-MRV Program Using All Landsat Data. Remote Sens. 2014, 6, 3923\u20133943"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"8","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6138-9879","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jean-Fran\u00e7ois","family":"Mas","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Centro de Investigaciones en Geograf\u00eda Ambiental, Universidad Nacional Aut\u00f3noma de M\u00e9xico, Campus Morelia, Antigua Carretera a P\u00e1tzcuaro 8701, Col. Ex-Hacienda de San Jos\u00e9 de La Huerta, C.P. 58190 Morelia, Mexico"}]},{"given":"St\u00e9phane","family":"Couturier","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Geograf\u00eda, Universidad Nacional Aut\u00f3noma de M\u00e9xico, Circuito de la Investigaci\u00f3n Cient\u00edfica, Ciudad Universitaria, Del. Coyoac\u00e1n, C.P. 04510 M\u00e9xico D.F., Mexico"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9926-2742","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jaime","family":"Paneque-G\u00e1lvez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centro de Investigaciones en Geograf\u00eda Ambiental, Universidad Nacional Aut\u00f3noma de M\u00e9xico, Campus Morelia, Antigua Carretera a P\u00e1tzcuaro 8701, Col. Ex-Hacienda de San Jos\u00e9 de La Huerta, C.P. 58190 Morelia, Mexico"}]},{"given":"Margaret","family":"Skutsch","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centro de Investigaciones en Geograf\u00eda Ambiental, Universidad Nacional Aut\u00f3noma de M\u00e9xico, Campus Morelia, Antigua Carretera a P\u00e1tzcuaro 8701, Col. Ex-Hacienda de San Jos\u00e9 de La Huerta, C.P. 58190 Morelia, Mexico"}]},{"given":"Azucena","family":"P\u00e9rez-Vega","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Universidad de Guanajuato, Sede Bel\u00e9n, Av. Ju\u00e1rez 77, Zona Centro, C.P. 4500 Guanajuato, Mexico"}]},{"given":"Miguel","family":"Castillo-Santiago","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Unidad San Crist\u00f3bal, Carretera Panamericana y Perif\u00e9rico Sur s\/n Barrio Mar\u00eda Auxiliadora, C.P. 29290 San Crist\u00f3bal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico"}]},{"given":"Gerardo","family":"Bocco","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centro de Investigaciones en Geograf\u00eda Ambiental, Universidad Nacional Aut\u00f3noma de M\u00e9xico, Campus Morelia, Antigua Carretera a P\u00e1tzcuaro 8701, Col. Ex-Hacienda de San Jos\u00e9 de La Huerta, C.P. 58190 Morelia, Mexico"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2016,6,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3923","DOI":"10.3390\/rs6053923","article-title":"MAD-MEX: Automatic wall-to-wall land cover monitoring for the mexican REDD-MRV program using all Landsat data","volume":"6","author":"Gebhardt","year":"2014","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"122","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2012.10.031","article-title":"Making better use of accuracy data in land change studies: Estimating accuracy and area and quantifying uncertainty using stratified estimation","volume":"129","author":"Olofsson","year":"2013","journal-title":"Remote Sens. 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