ABSTRACT
The purpose of land cover and land use descriptions varies, and this influences how these concepts are perceived in different contexts. The increasing need for spatial data for multipurpose monitoring and modeling also increases the demands for compatibility, repeatability, detail, and well-documented criteria. As Cihlar and Jansen and Bakker and Veldkamp emphasize, primary land use interacts strongly with land cover, and it is therefore reasonable to include both aspects in a spatially exhaustive and mutually exclusive classification system for landscape mapping. Ecological and environmental gradients are often mosaic and complex, and several types of land use may coexist at the same site. Land cover and land use are of fundamental importance for any description and classification of the environment and landscape.
