Evaluating Dissimilarities Among Available Land Use and Land Cover Mapping Initiatives: Emphasis on Agricultural Classes

This study aims to compare land use and land cover products of three mapping initiatives, focus on agricultural classes, showing their existing discrepancies in an area in the southern part of Paraná state, Brazil. The analyzed time interval was three years (2017, 2018, and 2019), selected based on the map’s availability. Qualitative and quantitative comparative analyses were conducted to highlight the discrepancies between the maps, thus seeking to answer the research hypotheses. Our general results showed a maximum and minimum of "non-disagreement" of 87.20% and 71.72%, as well as a minimum and maximum of "high disagreement" of 12.80% and 28.28% in agricultural pixels, for the paired comparison between the 2018 MapBiomas-GLAD and 2017 ESRI-GLAD maps, respectively. All products presented discrepancies among themselves, in different proportions, requiring the analyst's attention in decision-making regarding the choice of which mapping to use and its applicability in the agricultural context.