A satellite image can show you a forest. It cannot tell you whether that forest is set aside for conservation or marked for development. That is the difference between land cover — the physical type of land, such as forest or open water — and land use, which is how people are using it.
By comparing land cover data and maps over time, coastal managers can document trends and changes in land use. Credit: NOAA.
Two different questions
| Land cover | Land use | |
|---|---|---|
| What it describes | how much of a region is forest, wetland, impervious surface, agriculture, open water or other land and water types | how people use the landscape — for development, conservation or mixed uses |
| How it is found | by analyzing satellite and aerial imagery | not from satellite imagery |
The same type of land cover can be managed or used in very different ways.
Seeing change over time
A single land cover map describes the landscape as it is now. To see change, managers need maps from several different years. With them, they can judge the results of past decisions and get a sense of what their current decisions might do before they carry them out.
What coastal managers do with it
Land cover data and maps help managers understand the effects of both natural events and human use of the land. They can:
- assess urban growth
- model water quality
- predict and assess the effects of floods and storm surges
- track wetland losses and possible effects of sea level rise
- decide which areas to prioritize for conservation
- compare land cover changes with effects on the environment, or with social and economic changes such as a growing population
Sources
Based on "What is the difference between land cover and land use?" from NOAA's National Ocean Service, a work of the United States government in the public domain.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from oceanservice.noaa.gov
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