REMOTE SENSING OF LAND USE AND LAND COVER PRINCIPLES AND APPLICATIONS

Chandra P. Giri

Land cover of the earth’s land surface has been changing since time immemorial and is likely to continue to change in the future (Ramankutty and Foley, 1998). These changes are occurring at a range of spatial scales from local to global and at temporal frequencies of days to millennia (Townshend et al., 1991). Both natural and anthropogenic forces are responsible for the change. Natural forces such as continental drift, glaciation, flooding, and tsunamis and anthropogenic forces such as conversion of forest to agriculture, urban sprawl, and forest plantations have changed the dynamics of land-use/land-cover types throughout the world.