Land Use/Land Cover Classification Systems

The final objective of a geomatics process concerning Earth observation is the production of thematic maps. How to obtain thematic results is described in Chapter 8. With the use of informatics instruments, the possibilities to produce thematic maps are extensive. The problem is the quality and the assessment of the reliability of these maps. Few rules are fixed in image classification, and one of the most important concerns legend definition. Due to the large variability of possible terrestrial classes in the world, each map producer organizes its own legend independently. The absence of a recognized common methodology is conducive to the production of a very large variety of thematic maps. The queen of the thematic maps is the land use/land cover map. But also the definition of land use and land cover introduces misunderstanding.