Click to enlarge. Click to enlarge. Click to enlarge. Undergraduate Melissa Floyd '01 examined protected land in central Massachusetts. Land use and land cover are variables used to create a model of a landscape.
Land cover describes what currently exists at a place on the earth's surface.
Land use refers to the way in which society uses a particular area of land, whether for agriculture, recreation, commercial activity or industry, to name a few examples. Land cover and land use are interrelated and are often studied together. The same type of land cover can have different land uses. An area of forest might be used for logging, for recreation, or for conservation. Researchers are particularly interested in being able to predict how land cover and land use might change over time.