This metadata refers to the CLMS N2K Change 2006-2012 product, the Copernicus Land Cover/Land Use (LC/LU) change map tailored to the needs of biodiversity monitoring in selected Natura2000 sites: 4790 sites of natural and semi-natural grassland formations listed in Annex I of the Habitats Directive, including a 2km buffer zone surrounding the sites. The change mapping exercise between the reference years 2006 and 2012, based on the outputs of the status layers, occurred over an area of 631.800 km² across Europe (i.e. EU27, the United Kingdom and Switzerland). The change dataset only shows the areas that have changed between 2006 and 2012, covering an area of 1.054.684 ha.
LC/LU is extracted from VHR satellite data and other available data. Change detection is based on the analysis of VHR satellite data from the reference years 2006 ±2 years and 2012 ±2 years.
The production of N2K updates was coordinated by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in the frame of the EU Copernicus programme.
You can read more about the product here: https://land.copernicus.eu/en/products/n2k/n2k-change-2006-2012.