The main objective of this activity is to provide detailed land information on specific areas of interest for the European Union (EU) outside the EU territory. The service will answer to ad hoc requests and focus particularly within the domain of the sustainable management of natural resources. For such areas of interest, including protected areas or hot spots for biodiversity and land degradation, land cover and land cover change products will be provided.

The activities of the contract are organised in 2 lots:

1. lot 1: operations of the global land component: hot spot mapping (C-GL-HSM):

a) land cover mapping — single data;

b) land cover change mapping;

2. lot 2: independent validation and accuracy assessment.

Lot 2 will perform the independent control consisting of validation and accuracy assessment of the products produced by lot 1.

Operations of the global land component: hot spot mapping (C-GL-HSM)

a) land cover mapping — single data;

b) land cover change mapping.