LAND COVER OF ASIA 
Ryutaro Tateishi 
Center for Environmental Remote Sensing(CEReS) 
Chiba University 
Japan 
E-mail: tateishi@rsirc.cr.chiba-u.ac.jp 
KEY WORDS: Land cover, AVHRR, Asia, NDVI, surface temperature 
ABSTRACT 
30 arc-second grid land cover data set of the whole Asia was developed by the Land Cover Working Group(LCWG) of 
the Asian Association on Remote Sensing(AARS). The used satellite data are Normalized Difference Vegetation 
Index(NDVI), channel 4, and channel 5 of NOAA AVHRR from April 1992 to March 1993 which were produced by the 
United States Geological Survey(USGS). Other used data/information are global digital elevation data(GLOBE) as 
auxiliary data for classification, the Digital Chart of the World(DCW) for geometric registration and eighteen thematic 
maps for ground truth collection. Classification was done mainly using phenological information by clustering of 
monthly ratio of surface temperature and NDVI. Clustering result of this ratio, maximum monthly NDVI, minimum 
monthly NDVI, and elevation were used in determining decision tree classification rules. Members of the 
LCWG/AARS have supported for ground truth collection and post-classification modification. The produced land cover 
data set will be distributed with ground truth data by CD-ROM. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
Land cover is one of key environmental variables for 
global change studies such as carbon circulation and is 
important variable for global/continental scale land use 
planning in order to keep food supply for human and 
domestic animals and to keep sustainable environment in 
the present age of human population eruption. However 
there was no reliable land cover data in global/continental 
scale. But fortunately, land cover is one of the main 
features of the terrestrial environment which can be 
extracted by remote sensing technique. Therefore there are 
several organizations/groups such as IGBP, UNEP/FAO, 
CORINE which are trying to develop land cover data set 
of global or continental area. The Land Cover Working 
Group(LCWG) of the Asian Association on Remote 
Sensing(AARS) also aims to develop Asia land cover data 
set. The LCWG/AARS has developed land cover data set 
to meet both scientific needs (global change studies) and 
social needs(global/continental scale land use planning). 
2. AARS LAND COVER 
CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM 
The AARS land cover classification system, which is 
shown in Table 1, was developed through discussion with 
members of the LCWG/AARS. Since the developed land 
cover classification system is well described in the 
author's paper, Tateishi( 1997a), only main characteristics 
of the classification system is described in this paper. 
(1) Class code 
The classification system of this CD-ROM consists of 59 
classes including 47 classes for vegetation, 8 classes for 
non vegetation, and 4 classes for water. Addition of new 
classes up to 255 is possible. Class code is recorded in 
one byte. 
(2) Hierarchical system 
Hierarchical system itself has been well adopted method 
for a classification system. In some hierarchical 
classification systems, classes of the same level has 
similar characteristics. However, in the AARS 
classification system of this CD-ROM, the same level in 
the hierarchy does not necessarily have the same classified 
level. For example, Oil palm and Coconut are in the 7th 
level and Paddy and Wheat are in the 4th level. This is 
because classes of forest are divided more than classes of 
grassland. 
(3) Interpretability 
Continental or global land observation by satellite is 
often carried out by AVHRR data with the resolution of 
lkm. In the future, MODIS of EOS-AM1 and GLI of 
ADEOS-II with 250m resolution will be available. In the 
classes of forest or shrubland, more easily interpretable 
Pl-6-1