Land use and mapping

This summary is divided into two basic sections-one dealing with land use classification and delineation, and the other dealing with mapping. The term land use classification is used in respect to the actual use of land rather than land capability, land suitability, or the potential use of land. The classification of actual use of the land, as defined by man's activities that are related to the land, may be only inferred, rather than directly interpreted, in the case of the identification and classification of some surface features or vegetation cover types. Also, in the case of some surface features or vegetational cover types, the specific activity involving man's use of the land may not be designated in a four-level classification system until level 3 or level 4 is reached. Most investigations employed or implied a hierarchial land use classification scheme with more than two levels, but mainly addressed themselves to classifying and delineating surface features (land use) that would fall in the first two levels of a three- or four-level hierarchial scheme. Although not all investigators used a hierarchial classification scheme or concurred with the idea (computer-implemented classifications with digital data are not conducive to a hierarchial classification approach), the classification system proposed by the U.S. Department of the Interior is used as reference.