Knowra Land cover Land cover Land cover is the physical material present on Earth's surface, including vegetation, water, bare soil, and built structures. It describes what occupies the surface, rather than how people use it.
Land use : Land use describes how people manage or exploit land, such as for farming, housing, or conservation. A field may be cropland by cover while its ownership or purpose defines its use.
Land-cover classification : Land-cover classification assigns mapped areas or image pixels to categories such as forest, water, or built land. This process turns observations into the land-cover categories shown on maps.
Deforestation : Deforestation is the removal or lasting loss of forest cover, often through clearing or conversion to another use. Forest-to-nonforest transitions are among the most consequential land-cover changes.
CORINE Land Cover : CORINE Land Cover is a European database that maps land cover and land-cover change using a shared classification system. It is a major regional program for consistent, repeated land-cover mapping.
Ecosystem : An ecosystem is a community of organisms interacting with one another and their physical environment. Land cover can describe an ecosystem's visible structure but not all its interactions.
Satellite imagery : Satellite imagery consists of measurements of reflected or emitted energy collected by sensors aboard satellites. Different materials reflect energy differently, creating signals used to distinguish cover types.
Urbanization : Urbanization is the growth of towns and cities in population, extent, or concentration of built development. Expansion of buildings and roads replaces or fragments other surface cover.
Landsat program : The Landsat program is a series of Earth-observing satellites providing long-term multispectral imagery of the planet's land surface. Its continuous archive enables comparison of land cover across decades.
Biome : A biome is a large ecological region defined by characteristic climate, vegetation, and animal communities. Biome classifications group broad patterns of land cover across regions.
Spectral signature : A spectral signature is the pattern of energy reflected or emitted by a material across wavelengths. Spectral differences help separate vegetation, water, soil, and impervious surfaces.
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