< Land Use Home

• Overview
  • Land Use at a Glance
  • ACLUMP
  • Key Concepts
• Land Use Information
  • Land Use Mapping Tool
  • ALUM Classification
  • National Specifications
  • Catchment Specifications
• Land Use Data
  • National Scale Data
  • National Scale Map
  • Catchment Scale Data
  • Catchment Scale Map
• Land Use Reporting
  • Land Use Change
  • Land Use Report Card
  • Productivity and Cover
  • MCAS-S
  • Regional Profiles
• Land Mgt Practices
  • LUMIS

Key Concepts

Because of the general reliance on remotely sensed data (either satellite-based or airborne) for land use mapping, there is often confusion between the terms 'land use' and 'land cover'. The distinction between 'land use' and 'land management practice' is also poorly understood. Land tenure and commodities are other aspects of land occupation that can relate to land use and contribute to land use mapping. The following definitions explain the differences between these terms.

Land cover

Land cover refers to the physical surface of the earth, including various combinations of vegetation types, soils, exposed rocks and water bodies as well as anthropogenic elements, such as agriculture and built environments. Land cover classes can usually be discriminated by characteristic patterns using remote sensing.

Land use

Land use means the purpose to which the land cover is committed. Some land uses, such as agriculture, have a characteristic land cover pattern. These usually appear in land cover classifications. Other land uses, such as nature conservation, are not readily discriminated by a characteristic land cover pattern. For example, where the land cover is woodland, land use may be timber production or nature conservation.

Land management practice

Land management practice means the approach taken to achieve a land use outcome - the 'how' of land use (eg cultivation practices, such as minimum tillage and direct drilling). Some land management practices, such as stubble disposal practices and tillage rotation systems, may be discriminated by characteristic land cover patterns and linked to particular issues.

Land capability and land suitability

Land capability assesses the limitations to land use imposed by land characteristics and specifies management options. Land suitability (assessed as part of the process of land evaluation) is the fitness of a given type of land for a specified use.

Commodity

A commodity is usually an agricultural or mining product that can be processed. Commodity information may relate to land use and land cover, particularly at finer divisions of classification. Agricultural commodity data are available through the Australian Bureau of Statistics Agricultural Census.

Tenure

Tenure is the form of an interest in land. Some forms of tenure (such as pastoral leases or Nature Conservation Reserves) relate directly to land use and land management practice.