MapBiomas

FAQ

  • What is MapBiomas?

    The MapBiomas project is an initiative of the Climate Observatory and a collaboration network that involves universities, NGOs and technology companies with the purpose of mapping annually the land cover and use and monitoring changes in the territory.

  • What is MapBiomas Paraguay?

    MapBiomas Paraguay was established in 2023 as part of the collaborative effort in Paraguay among teams involved in the MapBiomas Chaco and MapBiomas Atlantic Forest Trinational initiatives. It is composed of specialists in topics such as land use, satellite remote sensing, GIS and programming. It uses cloud processing and automated classifiers developed and operated from the Google Earth Engine platform to generate a historical series of annual land use and cover maps of the Trinational Atlantic Forest.

  • Who produces the MapBiomas Paraguay maps?

    MapBiomas Paraguay involves researchers and specialists in remote sensing, GIS, computing, biomes and land uses from Guyra Paraguay and WWF Paraguay. The teams work in a coordinated way processing the information in the cloud through the Google Earth Engine platform.

  • How can I download maps from MapBiomas Paraguay?

    The maps can be downloaded directly on the platform through the link: LINK

    Do not forget to download the codes of the legend in: LINK

    It is also possible to download the data directly from Google Earth Engine when specific territorial or temporary breaks are needed.


    In Google Earth Engine it is possible to access all Landsat Mosaic data and transition maps. To obtain the IDs of the MapBiomas Paraguay collection in Google Earth Engine, access: LINK

  • Why are maps shown only in raster format? 

    The land cover and use maps of MapBiomas Paraguay are done through the pixel by pixel processing of temporal series of Landsat images (Raster 30 m pixels).

  • Can I download the data in Shapefile format? 

    There is no such possibility in the MapBiomas Paraguay platform. The vectorization of maps is extremely expensive and impractical for the whole territory. The recommended solution, if you want to work with vectors, is to download the data, make the territorial or spatial cut of your interest and then vectorize with your favorite software.

  • Is the MapBiomas Paraguay data public?

    Yes, the MapBiomas Paraguay data is public and free for non-commercial use or for public interest purposes.

  • Is it possible to work with MapBiomas Paraguay data in the cloud without having to download them?

    Yes, the MapBiomas Paraguay collections are available as layers in the Google Earth Engine platform and can be accessed, processed and analyzed directly on the platform without the need to download the data. To obtain the IDs of the MapBiomas Paraguay collection in the Google Earth Engine, go to:  LINK

  • How can I access the MapBiomas Paraguay data in Google Earth Engine? 

    It is necessary to have an account in Google Earth Engine (GEE), which can be registered through the following link: https://earthengine.google.com. By accessing the GEE Code Editorhttps://code.earthengine.google.com) you can launch scripts to view and process data. In the link you will find examples of scripts to access the MapBiomas Paraguay data in Google Earth Engine. LINK

  • How can I cite the MapBiomas Paraguay data?

    The data from MapBiomas Paraguay is public and free, simply referring to the source in the following format:
    "MapBiomas Paraguay Project - Collection [number] of the Annual Series of Land Use and Land Cover Maps, acquired on [date] through the link: [LINK] ". The MapBiomas Paraguay project - is a multi-institutional initiative to generate annual land use maps based on automatic classification processes applied to satellite images. The complete description of the project can be found at  https://paraguay.mapbiomas.org/proyecto

  • Where can I find the description of the legend and raster code?

    The detailed description of the legend with its corresponding code (raster) is available for download at: https://paraguay.mapbiomas.org/codigos-de-la-leyenda

  • Can I download the coverage and land use statistics data? For which territorial subset?

    Yes, the land cover and use statistics, as well as the transition matrices for the country, department, district, regions, protected areas, etc., are available for download at: https://paraguay.mapbiomas.org/estadisticas

  • How can I download the maps of a department or district?

    To download the data by department or district, you can generate it using Google Earth Engine by accessing the script sequence available at the link. You must select the department and district, specify the years of interest, and export it to your Google Drive folder.

  • How is the raster data area calculated in MapBiomas Paraguay?

    Landsat has an average resolution of 30 m, so it is common to associate the area of ​​a pixel with 900 m2. But, since the original MapBiomas Paraguay data is created following the representation of the GEE standard (Lat / Long and WGS84), it does not use an equivalent projection (equal area). Therefore, the distance from the target to the equator influences the pixel size. Therefore, on a continental scale, the pixel count calculation and multiplication by 900 m2 should be avoided. In MapBiomas Paraguay the calculation is performed in Google Earth Engine, we apply the function ee.Image.pixelArea () that generates an image in which the value of each pixel is the area of ​​that pixel in square meters, taking into account the possible cartographic distortions.

  • What maps were used as a reference for the mapping?

    You can access the description of all the reference maps used by MapBiomas Paraguay at: LINK