Remote Sensing of Land Use and Land Cover: Principles and Applications

Filling the need for a comprehensive book that covers both theory and application, Remote Sensing of Land Use and Land Cover: Principles and Applications provides a synopsis of how remote sensing can be used for land-cover characterization, mapping, and monitoring from the local to the global scale. With contributions by leading scientists from around the world, this well-structured volume offers an international perspective on the science, technologies, applications, and future needs of remote sensing of land cover and land use.

After an overview of the key concepts and history of land-use and land-cover mapping, the book discusses the relationship between land cover and land use and addresses the land-cover classification system. It then presents state-of-the-art methods and techniques in data acquisition, preprocessing, image interpretation, and accuracy assessment for land-use and land-cover characterization and mapping.

Case studies from around the world illustrate land-cover applications at global, continental, and national scales. These examples use multiple data sources and provide in-depth understanding of land cover and land-cover dynamics in multiple spatial, thematic, and temporal resolutions. Looking to the future, the book also identifies new frontiers in land-cover mapping and forecasting.

The availability and accessibility of accurate and timely land-cover data sets play an important role in many global change studies, highlighting the need for better land-use and land-cover change information at multiple scales. A synthesis of current knowledge in remote sensing of land-use and land-cover science, this book promotes more effective use of Earth observation data and technology to assess, monitor, and manage land resources.

Chandra P. Giri, PhD, is a research physical scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)/Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center, where he leads the International Land Cover and Biodiversity program. He is also a guest/adjunct faculty member at South Dakota State University. Prior to this, Dr. Giri worked for Columbia University in New York, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Asian Institute of Technology, and the Forest Department of Nepal. He has experience working in the private sector, academia, government, and international organizations at national, continental, and global levels in different parts of the world. He also serves as an expert in national and international working groups. Dr. Giri has more than 50 scientific publications to his credit and has received several awards from USGS, NASA, and other organizations.

OverviewBrief Overview of Remote Sensing of Land CoverChandra P. Giri
History of Land-Cover MappingThomas R. Loveland
Basic Principles
Semantic Issues in Land-Cover Analysis: Representation, Analysis, and VisualizationOla Ahlqvist
Overview of Land-Cover Classifications and Their InteroperabilityAntonio Di Gregorio and Doug O’Brien
Revisiting Land-Cover Mapping ConceptsPierre Defourny and Sophie Bontemps
Evaluating Land-Cover Legends Using the UN Land-Cover Classification SystemMartin Herold and Antonio Di Gregorio
Long-Term Satellite Data Records for Land-Cover MonitoringSangram Ganguly
Preprocessing: Need for Sensor CalibrationGyanesh Chander
Classification Trees and Mixed Pixel Training DataMatthew C. Hansen
Comparison between New Digital Image Classification Methods and Traditional Methods for Land-Cover MappingAlberto Jesús Perea Moreno and José Emilio Meroño De Larriva
Land-Cover Change DetectionXuexia (Sherry) Chen, Chandra P. Giri, and James E. Vogelmann
Supervised Classification Approaches for the Development of Land-Cover Time Series Darren Pouliot, Rasim Latifovic, Ian Olthof, and Robert Fraser
Forest-Cover Change Detection Using Support Vector MachinesChengquan Huang and Kuan Song
Global Land-Cover Map Validation Experiences: Toward the Characterization of UncertaintyPierre Defourny, Philippe Mayaux, Martin Herold, and Sophie Bontemps
Role of Remote Sensing for Land-Use and Land-Cover Change ModelingTerry Sohl and Benjamin SleeterApplication Examples
Operational Service Demonstration for Global Land-Cover Mapping: The GlobCover and GlobCorine Experiences for 2005 and 2009Sophie Bontemps, Oliver Arino, Patrice Bicheron, Christelle Carsten Brockman, Marc Leroy, Christelle Vancutsem, and Pierre Defourny
Continental and Regional Approaches for Improving Land-Cover Maps of AfricaPhilippe Mayaux, Christelle Vancutsem, Jean-François Pekel, Carlos de Wasseige, Pierre Defourny, Matthew C. Hansen, and Landing Mane
Land-Cover Mapping in Tropical AsiaHans-Jurgen Stibig and Chandra P. Giri
Land Cover and Its Change in Europe: 1990–2006Jan Feranec, Tomas Soukup, Gerard Hazeu, and Gabriel Jaffrain
North American Land-Change Monitoring SystemRasim Latifovic, Colin Homer, Rainer Ressl, Darren Pouliot, Sheikh Nazmul Hossain, René R. Colditz, Ian Olthof, Chandra P. Giri, and Arturo Victoria
The Application of Medium-Resolution MERIS Satellite Data for Continental Land-Cover Mapping over South America: Results and CaveatsLorena Hojas Gascon, Hugh Douglas Eva, Nadine Gobron, Dario Simonetti, and Steffen Fritz
Mapping Land-Cover and Land-Use Changes in ChinaXiangzheng Deng and Jiyuan Liu
An Approach to Assess Land-Cover Trends in the Conterminous United States (1973–2000)Roger F. Auch, Mark A. Drummond, Kristi L. Sayler, and Alisa L. Gallant, and William Acevedo
Is Africa Losing Its Natural Vegetation? Monitoring Trajectories of Land-Cover Change Using Landsat ImageryAndreas Bernhard Brink, Hugh Douglas Eva, and Catherine BodartLooking Ahead
The NASA Land-Cover and Land-Use Change Program: Research Agenda and Progress (2005–2011)Garik Gutman, Chris Justice, and LeeAnn King
Building Saliency, Legitimacy, and Credibility toward Operational Global and Regional Land-Cover Observations and Assessments in the Context of International Processes and Observing Essential Climate VariablesMartin Herold, Lammert Kooistra, Annemarie van Groenestijn, Pierre Defourny, Chris Schmullius, Vasileios Kalogirou, and Olivier Arino

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