EEA land cover data to be used in mobile phone maps

The EEA has concluded a license agreement with the company Navteq to use Corine Land Cover data in maps being developed for Navteq’s mother company Nokia. The Corine dataset will improve mapping and navigation with its broad coverage and high consistency. Initially the data will be used to identify woodlands, but at a later stage it may be used to also identify other land cover categories such as agricultural land.

The Corine land cover database was finalised in the early 1990s. The European Commission programme stands for ‘COoRdinate INformation on the Environment’ (Corine). Responsibility for hosting, maintenance and updating was taken over by the EEA when the Agency was set up in the mid-1990s. The dataset is regularly updated, with the most recent version published in 2006.

The Nokia agreement is just one example of the many uses of environmental information. The EEA actively encourages reuse of both its datasets and its reports, following the same policy as the Commission and other EU institutions. Reuse is not restricted to environmental purposes. Regardless of whether it is used for commercial or non-commercial purposes, the information is available free of charge for the users.