Change detection of the national land cover dataset of Mexico

Change detection information is of vital importance for environmental monitoring and planning. The North American Land Change Monitoring System (NALCMS) provides such a preliminary product for changes between 2005 and 2010 for the North American continent in a standardized and consistent manner. This paper presents the change detection method and results for the Mexican section of the study area. Based on 250m MODIS data changes were found for 0.39% of the national area. Some visually clear examples such as urban sprawl around growing cities like Cancun and lake level changes are described in more detail.