Assessing inconsistency in global land cover products and a synthesis of studies on land use and land cover dynamics during 2001-2017 in the southeastern region of Bangladesh

The high-quality Land Use and Land Cover data is important for monitoring and analyzing environmental changes in the background of global warming. This study accessed the spatial and areal inconsistencies in the four most recent multi-resources land cover products in a complex manner using the common classification systems of IGBP-17, IGBP-9, IPCC-5 and TC (vegetation, wetlands and others only). Based on inconsistencies and multi temporal land cover datasets, a synthesis of study was triggered out on land use and land cover dynamics during 2001-2017 in the southeastern region of Bangladesh. The overall areal and spatial inconsistencies decreased from high to low levels of aggregation (IGBP-17 to TC), indicating that the inconsistencies are not only influenced by the level of thematic detail and landscape complexity but also related to the conversion uncertainties. Overall areal inconsistency in the comparison of the FROM-GLC and GlobeLand30 datasets was the smallest among the six pairs, while, the pair of MODISLC and LULC was observed the highest inconsistencies. Based on overall lower inconsistencies classification system (IGBP-9), the synthetic land use cover changes at the study area were assessed. During the period of study, the areal distribution of forest cover, built-up areas and water were found increased in annually by 0.4%, 1.32%, and 0.3% respectively, while the croplands and wetlands were respectively decreased by 0.5% and 0.3%. The dynamic changes of croplands, forest, and artificial surface were identified the prime cyclic land cover change. This research is helpful in providing training areas for the producer of land cover products