CLS to Lead New Copernicus Land Monitoring Contract for Europe’s Coastal & Riparian Zones

CLS has been selected to lead a new consortium responsible for the future production and consolidation of the Coastal Zones and Riparian Zones products of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS).

Led by CLS, the consortium brings together COTESA, GAF, GeoVille, e-GEOS and Telespazio Ibérica, combining complementary expertise in Earth observation, geospatial data processing and land monitoring.

This new framework contract reinforces CLS’s long-standing contribution to Copernicus, the European Union’s Earth Observation programme, and its role in transforming satellite data into reliable information to better understand and monitor our changing environment.

Monitoring environments where land and water meet

Coastal and riparian areas are among Europe’s most dynamic and environmentally important landscapes.

The Copernicus Coastal Zones and Riparian Zones products provide detailed information on land cover and land use in these territories, offering a more precise characterisation than pan-European datasets.

This information supports a better understanding of how these environments are evolving and provides valuable data for applications linked to environmental monitoring, biodiversity, land management and climate adaptation.

Under the new contract, the consortium will produce new status layers for 2021, 2024 and 2027, moving from a six-year to a three-year update cycle. Existing 2012 and 2018 layers will also be harmonised and partially reprocessed.

An important evolution will also be the merge and harmonisation of the Coastal Zones and Riparian Zones products into a single product, helping address overlaps and inconsistencies while improving classification and nomenclature.

Continuing CLS’s contribution to Copernicus

This new contract builds on CLS’ longstanding involvement in the Copernicus programme and further strengthens its role within the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS).

CLS already leads the generation of other key products from the service portfolio. This includes pan-European High Resolution Layer (HRL) – Small Landscape Features (SLF) product suite, using satellite Earth observation and AI-driven image analysis to map and monitor small but important features such as hedgerows, shrubs and trees across Europe.

Updated every three years, these products provide consistent information on the evolution of features that play an important role in biodiversity, ecological connectivity, sustainable agriculture and climate resilience.

CLS is also consortium leader for the Copernicus Urban Atlas, a reference product providing detailed and harmonised land cover and land use information for urban areas across Europe. As this mapping already covers nearly 20 years of urban evolution and dynamics, it serves as a valuable tool for analysis and decision support for users.

Now, by leading the consortium responsible for the future Coastal Zones and Riparian Zones products, CLS is extending this leadership to some of Europe’s most dynamic environments.

Beyond these European products, CLS also leads the Hydrosphere and Cryosphere component of the Copernicus Global Land Service, contributing to the monitoring of water resources, snow and ice at global scale.

From urban areas and small landscape features to rivers, coastlines and global water resources, these initiatives demonstrate the breadth of CLS’s contribution to Copernicus Land and a common objective: transforming Earth observation data into reliable geospatial information to better understand environmental change and support informed decision-making.