Updated January 2000

Land cover and land use

Activities Overview Terminology for integrated resources planning and management Africover programme GCP/RAF/287/ITA Africover - East Africa Project Tools Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) Africover Interpretation and Mapping System (AIMs) Land Use Classification Land Use Database (LUDB) Publications Land Cover Classification System: Classification concepts and user manual - Abstract Land cover and land use classifications as tools for change detection - Summary Problems of current land cover classifications: Development of a new approach - Abstract New concept for a Land Cover Classification System - Abstract Africover land cover classification (FAO, 1997) - Proceedings

FAO's Environment and Natural Resources Service (SDRN) carries out a number of activities concerning land cover and land use. The overall objectives are:

• Development of a reference base for land cover and land use in order to have a common terminology that facilitates planning of sustainable and environmentally sound land use systems at different levels of detail and with the ability to translate between existing classifications thus contributing to the long term strategy of food security and resources management.

• Development of a set of tools for spatial planning that are scientifically sound, practical and acceptable to managers of already functioning national and international data systems.

The development of a common integrated approach to land use and land cover attempts to inform and involve the widest possible range of individuals, institutions and organisations in discussions while developing the classification and related tools in order to reach consensus on a basis of clear and concise definition of land cover and land use and to create a system which could act as a widely accepted global reference base.

Links to collaborating institutions and organizations

• US Federal Geographic Data Committee, Vegetation Subcommittee
• US Federal Geographic Data Committee, Earth Cover Working Group
• United Nations Environment Programme
• CESD-Communautaire's Land Use Programme - Multi-Purpose Information Systems on Land Cover and Land-use
• International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, Data Information System (IGBP-DIS)
• International Geosphere Biosphere Programme and International Human Dimensions Programme, Land Use and Cover Change (IGBP-IHDP LUCC)
• International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) - Modeling Land-Use and Land-Cover Changes in Europe and Northern Asia (LUP)
• South African National Land Cover Database Project

Comments/inquiries

John S. Latham (e-mail: john.latham@fao.org)
Environment and Natural Resources Service
FAO Research, Extension and Training Division