Monitoring of vegetation phenology across England: Assessing interannual variability and land-cover sensitivity using Copernicus HR-VPP

Vegetation phenology is a primary indicator of ecosystem functioning and climate sensitivity, yet robust monitoring at landscape scales remains challenging in land-use heterogeneous regions such as England. The Copernicus High-Resolution Vegetation Phenology and Productivity product (HR-VPP), derived from Sentinel-2, provides 10 m phenological metrics, including start of season (SOS), end of season (EOS), and length of season (LOS), enabling unprecedented fine-scale mapping of vegetation dynamics.

In this contribution, we present a workflow to characterise phenological timing across England using HR-VPP time series from 2017 to 2024. We quantify spatial patterns and interannual variability in key phenometrics and summarise trends across major land cover types.

This study provides: (i) an England-scale baseline of phenological timing at 10 m resolution; (ii) an assessment of recent anomalies and climate-driven variability within the HR-VPP record; and (iii) practical guidance for integrating high-resolution Copernicus products into national ecological monitoring. This work supports the broader application of HR-VPP for assessing vegetation resilience to climate and land-use pressures at the national level.