High-resolution land cover and land use data classification in Unity
By: Camilla Mahon
Land cover and land use map classifications from satellite imagery can be pulled into the Maps SDK for Unity. With a clear view of the ground and the 11-band spectrum from NASA satellites, we’re able to identify unique land cover classes ranging from slight vegetation changes to more dramatic differences between the built and natural environments. Letting you, for example, design a detailed Minecraft-inspired world in Unity.
In addition to the analysis of land classification from satellite imagery, we combine multiple data sources around the world so we can have higher-resolution in places where it’s available. Currently, we have processed:
- USGS, 30m resolution, USA including Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico
- GeoBase (combined Canadian gov’t sources), 30m resolution
- European Environment Agency, 100m resolution
- Geoscience Australia, 300m resolution
- NASA MODIS, 500m resolution globally
We’ve merged dozens of different classifications ranging from different classification systems for each source down to agriculture, cemetery, glacier, grass, hospital, industrial, park, parking, piste, pitch, rock, sand, school, scrub, wood, aboriginal_lands, national_park, wetland, wetland_noveg.
Landcover data is streamed in a scale-appropriate manner, meaning the landcover map is tiled in small pieces and distributed with low latency around the globe. You can explore the data in detail in Studio:
And then apply it to your game design in Unity:
Learn about our Satellite imagery or download the Maps SDK for Unity and get started with these tutorials. Read more about what’s possible with maps and location data.
