Reference Data Module: overview
Availability of high-quality in-situ reference data remains one of the few bottlenecks for training and validating accurate cropland/crop type classification models. The WorldCereal Reference Data Module (RDM) is an online application that hosts a global collection of harmonized and curated in-situ reference datasets on land cover and crop type, freely accessible to anyone.
The RDM hosts datasets from various providers with standardized metadata and attributes mapped to a unified crop type legend. Built-in automated data quality checks and careful curation performed by WorldCereal data moderators ensure high and transparent data quality. Through the RDM, users can view, query, download, contribute and share in-situ reference data. An extensive set of automated tools takes care of data harmonization to the WorldCereal standards, thereby effectively taking away most of the burden from the user.
All this functionality is available through an intuitive user interface and a more advanced API service. The Reference Data Module is linked to the WorldCereal classification system through means of a STAC catalogue, which is queried automatically during classification model training. Through this initiative the WorldCereal consortium aims to foster open data sharing within the agricultural monitoring community.
More information on this framework in:
Boogaard, H., Pratihast, A.K., Laso Bayas, J.C., Karanam, S., Fritz, S., Van Tricht, K., Degerickx, J. and Gilliams, S., 2023. Building a community-based open harmonised reference data repository for global crop mapping. Plos one, 18(7), p.e0287731.
Read more about the different aspects of reference data and the Reference Data Module on the following dedicated pages:
