Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
, Antonio Di Gregorio
GCP/RAF/287/ITA AfricoverEastern Africa Module, c/o FAO Representation Kenya, P.O. Box 30470, Nairobi, Kenya
Received 2 September 1999; received in revised form 7 June 2001; accepted 13 June 2001
Abstract
Systematic description of the environment for detection of environmental changes and the human-related causes and re-
sponses is essential in land cover and land-use change studies. The combined use of land cover and land-use data allows
detection of where certain changes occur, what type of change, as well as how the land is changing. Existing systems for
classication of land cover or land-use are limited in the storage of the number of classes and are often internally inconsistent.
Therefore, FAOdeveloped the land cover classication system(LCCS), a comprehensive parametric classication based upon
systematic description of classes using a set of independent quantiable diagnostic criteria. With this approach land cover
change detection becomes possible at the level of conversion of a class, whereas modication within a certain class type
becomes immediately identiable by a difference in classier, or through the use of additional classiers as is shown in a
series of examples illustrating the application of the approach to primarily vegetated areas. The development of a similar clas-
sication approach for land-use is in progress. The proposed approach combines function, grouping all land used for a similar
economic purpose, with activity, grouping all land undergoing a certain process resulting in a homogeneous type of products.
The preliminary concepts have been tested in two applications that have shown that the system can be used as a bridging
system that will ensure compatibility with, and bridge, existing systems. Furthermore, by providing (part of) the diagnostic
criteria the system contributes to providing a uniform basis for environmental change detection and these criteria contribute,
in turn, to standardisation. Land cover boundaries do not necessarily coincide with land-uses and the land cover/land-use
relation needs more study to understand its complexity.
2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Land cover; Land-use; Classication; Change detection; Global change
1. Introduction
The understanding of the interactions between
land cover and land-use in their spatial and tempo-
ral appearances is fundamental to comprehension of
land-use and land cover change. Land cover is an
expression of human activities and, as such, changes