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Land cover products provide the key inputs for terrestrial change monitoring and modeling. Numerous land cover products have been generated in the past few decades, but their performance on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau remains unclear. This study analyzed 15 land cover products for consistency through compositional similarity and overlay analyses. Additionally, 1305 validation samples from four datasets were employed to construct confusion matrices to evaluate their accuracy. The results indicate the following: (1) Land cover products exhibit relatively high consistency in 62.92% of the region. (2) Land cover products are strongly influenced by terrain fluctuations, showing lower consistency at elevation below 200 m and instability in land cover classification with increasing elevation, particularly between 2800–4400 m and 4800–5400 m. (3) The accuracy for forest, water, and snow/ice is relatively high. However, there is a relatively lower accuracy for wetland and shrubland, necessitating more field samples for reference to improve classification. (4) The average values of the four validation datasets show that the overall accuracy of the 15 products ranges from 50.97% to 73.50%. For broad-scale studies with lower resolution requirements, the CGLS-LC100 product can be considered. For studies requiring a finer scale, a combination of multiple land cover products should be utilized. ESRI is recommended as a reference for built-up land, while FROM-GLC30 can be used for cropland, although misclassification issues should be noted. This study provides valuable insights for analyzing land cover types on plateaus to refine classification. It also offers guidance for selecting suitable land cover products for future research in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land-cover change is a major cause of global ecosystem degradation, a severe threat to sustainable development and human welfare. In mountainous regions that cross national political boundaries, sensitive and fragile ecosystems are under complex disturbance pressures. Land-cover change may further exacerbate ecological risks in these regions. However, few studies have assessed the ecological risks in transboundary areas. This study focused on the Gandaki Basin (GRB), a typical transboundary region in the Himalayas. Based on the dynamic change in land cover, the landscape ecological risk index (ERI) model was constructed to assess the ecological risk in the GRB, revealing the evolution characteristics and spatial correlation of such a risk during the period 1990–2020. The results showed that all land cover types in the GRB have changed over the last 30 years. The interconversion of cropland and forestland was a distinctive feature in all periods. Overall, the medium and medium to low ecological risk level areas account for approximately 65% of the study area. The areas of high ecological risk were mainly distributed in the high elevation mountains of the northern Himalayas, while the low risk areas were located in the other mountains and hills of Nepal. In addition, the ecological risk in the Gandaki basin has shown a fluctuating trend of increasing over the past 30 years. However, there were different phases, with the order of ecological risk being 2020 > 2000 > 2010 > 1990. Ecological risks displayed positive spatial correlation and aggregation characteristics across periods. The high–high risk clusters were primarily located in the high and medium high ecological risk areas, while the low–low risk clusters were similar to low risk levels region. The findings provided the reference for ecosystem conservation and landscape management in transboundary areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]