Review of Land Cover Classification Based on Remote Sensing Data

Land use and land cover change is one of the focuses in the study of global change in recent year. Land cover characteristics, at the global and regional scale, are very important for evaluating global environment status and simulating global environment scenario in the future. In order to provide some useful reference for this kind of study in China, the paper introduces the most recent progresses of international researches on land cover classification from four aspects including remote sensing data, classification method, land cover classification system and outcome comparison. The author believes making a classification system not only reflects the Chinese condition but also being compatible with other international systems, building a public and updating land use/cover database, are the most important things to be solved.