Land Cover / Use Change Analysis: Data Sets, Nomenclature and Harmonization

A significant research area is the analysis of land cover/use change and its impact on carbon sequestration and ultimately on climate change and the sustainability of bioenergy. The challenges and criticism of this research often stem from the data sets used and the classification of the land units (such as acres or pixels) within the data sets. Many dimensions such as the nomenclature used for the land cover/use classes, the source of the data (e.g., remote sensing, surveys), the classification accuracies, and the research objectives impact the methodologies employed by the researchers. These dimensions have led to a diverse array of methods and a wide range of results, thereby generating a lot of debate about the validity of the data sets, research methods, and results. This paper attempts to move this research field forward by (1) summarizing the key issues related to the land cover/use data sets and their respective classifications used across the research area; (2) identifying implications of some of the methods used to address the issues; and (3) proposing approaches for the research community to consider for addressing the challenges encountered in using the currently available data sets.