Thematic error detection in the CORINE Land Cover through the study of changes: Community of Madrid (2000-2006)

Thematic cartography use to be the starting point in several works. It is necessary to be careful with the errors that data source may have to achieve a good outcome. Using a simple methodology we can identify thematic errors in the CORINE Land Cover cartography from the years 2000 and 2006 through the database intersection. That map intersection will give us a group of stable and changing polygons and a cross tabulation matrix with which the surface gain or loss can be interpreted. By means of studies through sampling stable and changing polygons and their verification with orthophotos we can find several thematic errors in the cartography used. Besides, the use of confusion matrices determines the level of global accuracy and categories most prone to error.