Standardisation of Land Use and Land Cover Data

Land use is the human activity carried out to obtain goods or benefits from the land. Land cover is the vegetation or the constructions which cover the earth's surface. Information on land use and land cover is needed for many purposes, including economic planning, land use planning, environmental monitoring, and nature conservation. However, there is no internationally accepted classification system for either land use or land cover and many different systems are in use. This makes it extremely difficult to compare land cover in neighbouring countries or to obtain a regional impression of land use or cover.

Because of growing concern over the extent to which human activities are affecting the global environment, there is an increasing need to harmonise land cover and land use information. Standardisation of data on land use and land cover will facilitate data compilation, comparison and reporting, taking account of:

  • differences in data collection methods/data sources
  • different scale requirements for different purposes
  • the need to maintain and correlate existing nomenclatures (often developed for different purposes)
  • distinction between land use and land cover
  • difference between definition, classification and legend
  • need for exchange of knowledge and information
  • need for reporting land cover and use change at all scales and between scales

To fill these information gaps, UNEP-WCMC is working with ITE (the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology), ITC (International Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Sciences), UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) and FAO (the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) in a joint project to develop, promote and implement a General Global Nomenclature for Land Cover and Land Use (GGNLCLU). The purpose of this nomenclature is to provide a general framework which will serve as a means of inter-conversion between different specialist systems. It is not intended to be a standard system which all countries should use, but one to which all can be related.

Focus of Work

  • analyse existing nomenclatures (land cover and land use and also other nomenclatures in common usage which, for the environmental community, often tend to be classifications which describe ecosystems)
  • design a set of rules to correlate one classification with another
  • develop glossaries for land use and land cover terms and store them in a Land Use and Land Cover Database/Software;
    - with the same software:
  • store raw field data resulting from ground surveys, or data from existing maps and/or statistical data sets, or interpretations of remotely sensed imagery
  • incorporate a structure for a standard methodology for entering, storing and describing land use and cover types
  • store existing classifications for correlation purposes.

Project Outputs

  • a General Global Nomenclature for Land Cover and Land Use, structured within a broad framework of land attribute classes
  • software to interrogate the GGNLCLU and to identify inter-relationships between land cover and land use categories in different nomenclature systems
  • tables of equivalence between nomenclature systems
  • land cover and/or land use maps using keys derived from the GGNLCU, and
  • a draft publication suitable for widespread distribution, explaining the need for common, internationally agreed land cover and land use nomenclatures

Many groups and institutions are working in this field or have done so in the past. It is felt that maximum information exchange will help to minimise the possibility of duplication and would also foster the emergence of an approach which would eventually be suitable for global application. With this in mind FAO and UNEP, with the support of UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and a number of other organisations have launched an initiative called LUCCLASS.NET, the long-term objective of which is to develop satisfactory land use and land cover concepts, definitions, and classifications which could eventually gain acceptance worldwide. We would be very interested to hear from other groups or institutions working in this field.