Land Cover and Land Use Ontology—Evolution of International Standards, Challenges, and Opportunities

Fatima Mushtaq (), C. Douglas O’Brien, Peter Parslow, Mats Åhlin, Antonio Di Gregorio, John S. Latham and Matieu Henry
Additional contact information
Fatima Mushtaq: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 00153 Rome, Italy
C. Douglas O’Brien: IDON Technologies Inc., 1430 Prince of Wales Dr #38036, Ottawa, ON K2C 3Y7, Canada
Peter Parslow: International Organization for Standardization, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland
Mats Åhlin: International Organization for Standardization, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland
Antonio Di Gregorio: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 00153 Rome, Italy
John S. Latham: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 00153 Rome, Italy
Matieu Henry: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 00153 Rome, Italy

Land, 2024, vol. 13, issue 8, 1-13

Abstract: Knowledge of land is of central importance to manage the impact of mankind upon the environment. The understanding and treatment of land vary greatly across different regions and communities, making the description of land highly specific to each locality. To address the larger global issues, such as world food production or climate change mitigation, one needs to have a common standardized understanding of the biosphere cover and use of land. Different governments and institutions established national systems to describe thematic content of land within their jurisdictions. These systems are all valid and tuned to address various national needs. However, their integration at regional or global levels is lacking. Integrating data from widely divergent sources to create world datasets not only requires standards, but also an approach to integrate national and regional land cover classification systems. The ISO 19144 series, developed through the collaboration between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), offers a meta-language for the integration of disparate land classification systems, enhancing interoperability, data sharing, and national to global data integration and comparison. This paper provides an overview of classification system concepts, different stages for the development of standards in ISO and the status of different standards in the ISO 19144 series. It also explores the critical role of the ISO 19144 series in standardizing land cover and land use classification systems. Drawing on practical case studies, the paper underscores the series’ potential to support global sustainable development goals and lays out a path for its future development and application. Using these standards, we gain not only a tool for harmonizing land classification, but also a critical level for advancing sustainable development and environmental stewardship worldwide.

Keywords: interoperability; land characterization; geospatial; semantic ontology; harmonization; classification; integration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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