Business Wire

Esri Releases New App to Easily View and Analyze Global Land-Cover Changes

8.2.2023 16:00:00 EET | Business Wire | Press release

Share

Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) maps are an increasingly important tool for decision-makers at local, regional, and national government levels around the world. These maps help inform policy and land management decisions around issues like sustainability, by contextualizing and quantifying the impacts of earth processes and human activity on the environment.

Esri, the global leader in mapping and location intelligence, has now released a new online application, Sentinel-2 Land Cover Explorer. The app is structured around a web-based version of its own high-resolution global land-cover map, derived from European Space Agency (ESA) Sentinel-2 satellite imagery. The app is easy to access and leverages the same geographic information system (GIS) technology behind the land-cover map. The app, map, and source Sentinel-2 imagery are all part of the company's ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World.

"GIS not only provides the capabilities necessary to produce and share data and maps such as LULC, it also enables users to derive and disseminate insights from such data," said Sean Breyer, Esri program manager for ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World. "Generating this information is foundational, and Sentinel-2 Land Cover Explorer will be invaluable for helping decision-makers unlock critical insights about land use, particularly as sustainability becomes a pressing global concern."

Change analysis is fundamental to deeper understanding of LULC maps, and Sentinel-2 Land Cover Explorer provides various ways of detecting and reporting changes, including visual change analysis; statistical change analysis; visual change validation; and dynamic charts for percentage changes and trends over time. Other features offered by the app include the following:

  • Image services from ArcGIS Living Atlas
  • The ability to take data offline (download mode in the app)
  • Analysis tools in ArcGIS Online
  • ArcGIS developer tools and resources

In 2021, in partnership with Impact Observatory and Microsoft, Esri released the first artificial intelligence (AI)-generated global land-cover map. This subsequently evolved into the LULC annual time series map available today, which includes nine major land cover categories. Annual updates enable year-to-year comparisons for detecting shifts in vegetation and crops, forest extents, bare surfaces, and urban areas. With the recent addition of the 2022 update, the annual land cover time series now includes global coverage from 2017 through 2022.

Sentinel-2 Land Cover Explorer is a dynamic, ready-to-use application with an intuitive user experience. To explore the app online now, go to livingatlas.arcgis.com/landcoverexplorer.

About Esri

Esri, the global market leader in geographic information system (GIS) software, location intelligence, and mapping helps customers unlock the full potential of data to improve operational and business results. Founded in 1969 in Redlands, California, USA, Esri software is deployed in more than 350,000 organizations globally and in over 200,000 institutions in the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Esri has partners and local distributors in over 100 countries on six continents, including Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, nonprofits, and universities. With its pioneering commitment to geospatial information technology, Esri engineers the most innovative solutions for digital transformation, the Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics. Visit us at esri.com.

Copyright © 2023 Esri. All rights reserved. Esri, the Esri globe logo, ArcGIS, The Science of Where, esri.com, and @esri.com are trademarks, service marks, or registered marks of Esri in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other companies and products or services mentioned herein may be trademarks, service marks, or registered marks of their respective mark owners.

To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.

Contact information

Jo Ann Pruchniewski
Public Relations, Esri
Mobile: 301-693-2643
Email: jpruchniewski@esri.com

About Business Wire

For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.

Subscribe to releases from Business Wire

Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Latest releases from Business Wire

ADNEC Group Kickstarts November with Two of the World’s Largest Events in the Energy and Tourism Sectors31.10.2026 05:53:00 EET | Press release

ADNEC Group, a Modon company, begins November by hosting two of the world’s most significant international events in the same week. ADIPEC 2026, the world’s largest energy event, takes place at ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi from 2 to 5 November. Meanwhile, World Travel Market (WTM) London, one of the global travel industry’s leading gatherings, takes place at the Group’s Excel London venue from 3 to 5 November. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261030918463/en/ ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi (Photo: AETOSWire) The two events, held simultaneously at the Group’s largest venues in the UAE and the UK, reflect ADNEC Group’s capability to deliver large-scale international events across multiple markets. ADIPEC has grown alongside the venue since it was first held at the ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi in 2006. This year’s edition is set to be the largest in the event’s history, occupying the venue’s entire 153,000 square metres of exhibition

SES and Air Astana Introduce Multi-orbit Inflight Connectivity on A321LR Fleet30.10.2026 19:35:00 EET | Press release

SES was selected by Air Astana, the award-winning flag carrier of Kazakhstan, to introduce next-generation inflight connectivity services across its Airbus A321LR fleet. The first connected aircraft entered commercial service on 29 October 2026. Fleet-wide deployment will continue across the remaining A321LR fleet. Equipped with SES’s new electronically steered array (ESA) antenna, the aircraft delivers reliable connectivity over the SES multi-orbit network. SES will provide a fully managed inflight connectivity service across the fleet, enabling Air Astana passengers to enjoy a seamless online experience throughout their journey. “Airlines are increasingly looking for connectivity solutions that deliver a seamless passenger experience while providing the flexibility to evolve with changing customer expectations,” said Blane Boynton, Senior Vice President, Aviation at SES. “SES's multi-orbit solution will enable Air Astana to offer a consistent, high-quality online experience across it

CIRCOR to Expand Industrial Portfolio with Acquisition of Green Silence Group S.p.A.30.10.2026 18:06:00 EET | Press release

CIRCOR, a KKR portfolio company and global manufacturer of flow control products for industrial and naval markets, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Green Silence Group S.p.A., an Italian provider of hydraulic pumps, electric motors and advanced engineering solutions. The acquisition will bring together the complementary capabilities of Settima, Motive and Spin expanding CIRCOR’s Industrial portfolio with three-screw and ultra-low-noise hydraulic pumps, Motive electric motors, high-efficiency rare-earth-free motor technologies, power electronics and advanced engineering capabilities. Together, these technologies will broaden CIRCOR’s ability to deliver integrated solutions that improve system efficiency, reduce energy consumption and critical raw materials dependency, and address evolving customer needs across industrial and mobile applications. The combination will also provide Green Silence Group access to CIRCOR’s global commercial and operational

Quectel Sues Telit, Alleging False Statements, Cybersquatting and Unfair Competition30.10.2026 17:41:00 EET | Press release

Quectel Wireless Solutions, a global end-to-end IoT solutions provider, today announced that it has filed legal action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida against Telit IoT Solutions Inc. The lawsuit seeks to bring an end to Telit’s campaign of false and misleading claims about Quectel and its products. Quectel alleges that, rather than competing on the strength of its products and technology, Telit engaged in a coordinated campaign to undermine Quectel’s reputation by exploiting geopolitical concerns surrounding Chinese technology companies. According to the complaint, Telit funded, promoted, and amplified false and misleading claims about Quectel’s products while positioning itself to customers as a safer “Western” alternative. The lawsuit further alleges that Telit engaged in cybersquatting involving Quectel’s U.S. domain name to advance its campaign. Quectel maintains that these alleged actions have caused substantial harm to its sales, customer

TestMu AI Launches Kane CLI Exploration, an AI Agent That Maps an Entire Web App From a Single URL and Turns It Into Tests30.10.2026 16:00:00 EET | Press release

TestMu AI, the Full Stack Agentic AI Quality Engineering platform, announced Kane CLI Exploration, an autonomous agent that learns a web application before anyone writes a test. Given a single URL, it walks the entire app on its own, flags problems along the way and gives Kane CLI the context it needs to generate and run tests, even when no requirements, user stories or acceptance criteria exist. Every test plan starts from something written down, and many apps never had it. Legacy products lose their specs when the people who wrote them move on, and apps a coding agent built in a week often have no record of intended behavior beyond the prompt history. With nothing to test against, a testing agent ends up grading the app against itself. Starting from the URL a developer provides, the exploration agent moves through every page, junction and flow it can reach, the way a new QA engineer clicks through a product in their first week. For each page it records the controls, the flows in and

In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.

Visit our pressroom
World GlobeA line styled icon from Orion Icon Library.HiddenA line styled icon from Orion Icon Library.Eye