Chandra P. Giri, PhD, is a research physical scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)/Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center, where he leads the International Land Cover and Biodiversity program. He is also a guest/adjunct faculty member at South Dakota State University. Prior to this, Dr. Giri worked for Columbia University in New York, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Asian Institute of Technology, and the Forest Department of Nepal. He has experience working in the private sector, academia, government, and international organizations at national, continental, and global levels in different parts of the world. He also serves as an expert in national and international working groups. Dr. Giri has more than 50 scientific publications to his credit and has received several awards from USGS, NASA, and other organizations.

"Dr. Giri carefully selected and examined each contribution and created a well-structured volume in order to address the issues of land cover from the viewpoints of science, technology, practical application and future needs. This comprehensive approach presents the readers with both a systematic view of the field and a detailed knowledge of a particular topic." -From the Foreword by Qihao Weng, PhD, Hawthorn Woods, Indiana "... this book certainly met its objectives to present a comprehensive examination of one important and complex topic: land use and land cover. ... valuable because it brings many key aspects of this topic under one cover. It will be a great addition to any personal library and a good choice for reading materials in seminar courses. ... the editor and contributors make this book a success by presenting overviews, principles, applications, and future opportunities." -Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing, November 2013

• Overview: Brief Overview of Remote Sensing of Land Cover. History of Land-Cover Mapping. Basic Principles: Semantic Issues in Land-Cover Analysis: Representation, Analysis, and Visualization. Overview of Land-Cover Classifications and Their Interoperability. Revisiting Land-Cover Mapping Concepts. Evaluating Land-Cover Legends Using the UN Land-Cover Classification System. Long-Term Satellite Data Records for Land-Cover Monitoring. Preprocessing: Need for Sensor Calibration. Classification Trees and Mixed Pixel Training Data. Comparison between New Digital Image Classification Methods and Traditional Methods for Land-Cover Mapping. Land-Cover Change Detection. Supervised Classification Approaches for the Development of Land-Cover Time Series. Forest-Cover Change Detection Using Support Vector Machines. Global Land-Cover Map Validation Experiences: Toward the Characterization of Uncertainty. Role of Remote Sensing for Land-Use and Land-Cover Change Modeling. Application Examples: Operational Service Demonstration for Global Land-Cover Mapping: The GlobCover and GlobCorine Experiences for 2005 and 2009. Continental and Regional Approaches for Improving Land-Cover Maps of Africa. Land-Cover Mapping in Tropical Asia. Land Cover and Its Change in Europe: 1990-2006. North American Land-Change Monitoring System. The Application of Medium-Resolution MERIS Satellite Data for Continental Land-Cover Mapping over South America: Results and Caveats. Mapping Land-Cover and Land-Use Changes in China. An Approach to Assess Land-Cover Trends in the Conterminous United States (1973-2000). Is Africa Losing Its Natural Vegetation? Monitoring Trajectories of Land-Cover Change Using Landsat Imagery. Looking Ahead: The NASA Land-Cover and Land-Use Change Program: Research Agenda and Progress (2005-2011). Building Saliency, Legitimacy, and Credibility toward Operational Global and Regional Land-Cover Observations and As

Chandra P. Giri, PhD, is a research physical scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)/Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center, where he leads the International Land Cover and Biodiversity program. He is also a guest/adjunct faculty member at South Dakota State University. Prior to this, Dr. Giri worked for Columbia University in New York, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Asian Institute of Technology, and the Forest Department of Nepal. He has experience working in the private sector, academia, government, and international organizations at national, continental, and global levels in different parts of the world. He also serves as an expert in national and international working groups. Dr. Giri has more than 50 scientific publications to his credit and has received several awards from USGS, NASA, and other organizations.

"Dr. Giri carefully selected and examined each contribution and created a well-structured volume in order to address the issues of land cover from the viewpoints of science, technology, practical application and future needs. This comprehensive approach presents the readers with both a systematic view of the field and a detailed knowledge of a particular topic." -From the Foreword by Qihao Weng, PhD, Hawthorn Woods, Indiana "... this book certainly met its objectives to present a comprehensive examination of one important and complex topic: land use and land cover. ... valuable because it brings many key aspects of this topic under one cover. It will be a great addition to any personal library and a good choice for reading materials in seminar courses. ... the editor and contributors make this book a success by presenting overviews, principles, applications, and future opportunities." -Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing, November 2013

• Overview: Brief Overview of Remote Sensing of Land Cover. History of Land-Cover Mapping. Basic Principles: Semantic Issues in Land-Cover Analysis: Representation, Analysis, and Visualization. Overview of Land-Cover Classifications and Their Interoperability. Revisiting Land-Cover Mapping Concepts. Evaluating Land-Cover Legends Using the UN Land-Cover Classification System. Long-Term Satellite Data Records for Land-Cover Monitoring. Preprocessing: Need for Sensor Calibration. Classification Trees and Mixed Pixel Training Data. Comparison between New Digital Image Classification Methods and Traditional Methods for Land-Cover Mapping. Land-Cover Change Detection. Supervised Classification Approaches for the Development of Land-Cover Time Series. Forest-Cover Change Detection Using Support Vector Machines. Global Land-Cover Map Validation Experiences: Toward the Characterization of Uncertainty. Role of Remote Sensing for Land-Use and Land-Cover Change Modeling. Application Examples: Operational Service Demonstration for Global Land-Cover Mapping: The GlobCover and GlobCorine Experiences for 2005 and 2009. Continental and Regional Approaches for Improving Land-Cover Maps of Africa. Land-Cover Mapping in Tropical Asia. Land Cover and Its Change in Europe: 1990-2006. North American Land-Change Monitoring System. The Application of Medium-Resolution MERIS Satellite Data for Continental Land-Cover Mapping over South America: Results and Caveats. Mapping Land-Cover and Land-Use Changes in China. An Approach to Assess Land-Cover Trends in the Conterminous United States (1973-2000). Is Africa Losing Its Natural Vegetation? Monitoring Trajectories of Land-Cover Change Using Landsat Imagery. Looking Ahead: The NASA Land-Cover and Land-Use Change Program: Research Agenda and Progress (2005-2011). Building Saliency, Legitimacy, and Credibility toward Operational Global and Regional Land-Cover Observations and As

Chandra P. Giri, PhD, is a research physical scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)/Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center, where he leads the International Land Cover and Biodiversity program. He is also a guest/adjunct faculty member at South Dakota State University. Prior to this, Dr. Giri worked for Columbia University in New York, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Asian Institute of Technology, and the Forest Department of Nepal. He has experience working in the private sector, academia, government, and international organizations at national, continental, and global levels in different parts of the world. He also serves as an expert in national and international working groups. Dr. Giri has more than 50 scientific publications to his credit and has received several awards from USGS, NASA, and other organizations.

"Dr. Giri carefully selected and examined each contribution and created a well-structured volume in order to address the issues of land cover from the viewpoints of science, technology, practical application and future needs. This comprehensive approach presents the readers with both a systematic view of the field and a detailed knowledge of a particular topic." -From the Foreword by Qihao Weng, PhD, Hawthorn Woods, Indiana "... this book certainly met its objectives to present a comprehensive examination of one important and complex topic: land use and land cover. ... valuable because it brings many key aspects of this topic under one cover. It will be a great addition to any personal library and a good choice for reading materials in seminar courses. ... the editor and contributors make this book a success by presenting overviews, principles, applications, and future opportunities." -Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing, November 2013

• Overview: Brief Overview of Remote Sensing of Land Cover. History of Land-Cover Mapping. Basic Principles: Semantic Issues in Land-Cover Analysis: Representation, Analysis, and Visualization. Overview of Land-Cover Classifications and Their Interoperability. Revisiting Land-Cover Mapping Concepts. Evaluating Land-Cover Legends Using the UN Land-Cover Classification System. Long-Term Satellite Data Records for Land-Cover Monitoring. Preprocessing: Need for Sensor Calibration. Classification Trees and Mixed Pixel Training Data. Comparison between New Digital Image Classification Methods and Traditional Methods for Land-Cover Mapping. Land-Cover Change Detection. Supervised Classification Approaches for the Development of Land-Cover Time Series. Forest-Cover Change Detection Using Support Vector Machines. Global Land-Cover Map Validation Experiences: Toward the Characterization of Uncertainty. Role of Remote Sensing for Land-Use and Land-Cover Change Modeling. Application Examples: Operational Service Demonstration for Global Land-Cover Mapping: The GlobCover and GlobCorine Experiences for 2005 and 2009. Continental and Regional Approaches for Improving Land-Cover Maps of Africa. Land-Cover Mapping in Tropical Asia. Land Cover and Its Change in Europe: 1990-2006. North American Land-Change Monitoring System. The Application of Medium-Resolution MERIS Satellite Data for Continental Land-Cover Mapping over South America: Results and Caveats. Mapping Land-Cover and Land-Use Changes in China. An Approach to Assess Land-Cover Trends in the Conterminous United States (1973-2000). Is Africa Losing Its Natural Vegetation? Monitoring Trajectories of Land-Cover Change Using Landsat Imagery. Looking Ahead: The NASA Land-Cover and Land-Use Change Program: Research Agenda and Progress (2005-2011). Building Saliency, Legitimacy, and Credibility toward Operational Global and Regional Land-Cover Observations and As