Land use and land cover mapping and change detection and monitoring using radar remote sensing

Land use and land cover (LULC) mapping and monitoring are one of the most important application areas of remote sensing. Land use refers to the human activities on land, which are directly related to the land (Clawson and Stewart, 1965). It usually emphasizes on the functional role of land in socioeconomic activities, such as agriculture, industry, commerce, transportation, construction, and recreation. These activities are abstract and not always observable from remotely sensed images, and inference based on surrogates often has to be made to identify the land use. Land cover, on the other hand, implies the vegetation and artificial constructions covering the land surface (Burley, 1961). It encompasses natural features such as vegetation, urban areas, water, barren land, or others that are concrete and directly visible on remotely sensed images. Land cover does not describe the use of land, and the use of land may be different for lands with the same cover type. For instance, a land cover type of forest may be used for timber production, wildlife management, or recreation; it might be private land, a protected watershed, or a popular state park.