The development and adoption of land cover data standards are critical for supporting global efforts to address the challenges related to climate change, sustainable development, and disaster risk reduction. By providing consistent and interoperable land cover data, these standards can support decision-making processes at all levels, from local to global, and help to ensure that progress towards the UN Sustainability Goals is monitored and reported in a transparent and accountable manner.

To support the process, FAO, and the National Research Council of Italy - Institute of Intelligent Industrial Technologies and Systems for Advanced Manufacturing (CNR-STIIMA), developed a new software “land characterization system software (LCHS)” version 1.0 based on international standard i.e. ISO 19144-2 land cover meta language. The LCHS software is designed to implement a system that can evolve with the ISO standard itself. This will guide and facilitate the land cover user community to prepare their land cover classes based on international standards.