4.4. Land cover data

ECOCLIMAP is a global database of surface parameters.

It’s composed of a global land cover map, in which each ecosystem or cover is described by, at first level, 4 fractions of the 4 main surface types or tiles (SEA, WATER, NATURE, TOWN), and then, at second level in tile NATURE, 19 fractions of the 19 vegetation types or PFTs (Plant Functional Types).

These 19 PFTs are NO (bare soil), ROCK (bare rocks), SNOW (snow and ice), TEBD (temperature broadleaf cold-deciduous), BONE (boreal needleleaf evergreen), TRBE (tropical broadleaf evergreen), C3 (C3 crops), C4 (C4 crops), IRR (irrigated crops), GRAS (temperate grassland), TROG (tropical grassland), PARK (swamp areas), TRBD (tropical broadleaf deciduous), TEBE (temperate broadleaf evergreen), TENE (temperate needleleaf evergreen), BOBD (boreal broadleaf cold-deciduous), BOND (boreal needleleaf cold-deciduous), BOGR (boreal grassland), SHRB (shrub).

Then, surface parameters, like LAI, albedo, fraction of vegetation, soil depths, roughness length, depend on the PFTs, and, for some of them (LAI, soil depths, heights of trees), also on the cover.

The user can use ECOCLIMAP or give values for the parameters fields, in the namelist.