ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how the tegon concept can model land cover as a real-world phenomenon. Most land cover mapping initiatives have been biased toward optimized data capture and cartographic quality. Interoperability of the resulting data has proven difficult due to the semantic ambiguity embedded in the classification and methodology of each initiative, which often does not correctly reflect and account for the complexity and specificity of the landscape under observation. Application of tegon conceptualization during the inception of new classifications or data sets should introduce the correct semantics in those initiatives. However, as tegon modeling in itself does not address the limitations of current data-capture methodologies, impact for ongoing inventories will be limited to improving semantic interoperability.
