Land cover information is used for

Developing and monitoring environmental and agricultural policy.

• Drought policy – mitigating effects of future drought and relief based on the response of land cover to prevailing weather patterns
• Food security – mapping crop coverage and areas of potential agricultural use
• Biosecurity – planning for disease/pest response. To understand risk based on the ability of a disease or pest to move across landscape. To understand land cover change as a response to pests.
• Contraction and expansion of agricultural lands
• Protection of agricultural land by accurately mapping changes in agricultural land over time
• Management of forests, rivers, fisheries, catchments and agriculture by recording land cover extent and changes
• Managing reefs, floodplains and environmental degradation by recording land cover extent and changes
• Planning investment priorities for agriculture and natural resources management through provision of baseline of land cover
• Location and change in irrigation areas

Weather modelling, climate modelling, mitigation and adaption planning

• Land Cover and Land Cover Change data is used for Greenhouse Gas Inventory Reporting obligations (UNFCCC & Kyoto Protocol) and climate change initiatives
• Providing land cover information to report on international agreements
• Reporting extent and conversion of 6 IPCC land categories – forest land, crop land, grass land, settlements, wetlands and other lands
• Land cover data provides input for ecological and climate modelling
• Land Cover data provides input to risk assessments for the built environment in relation to sea level rise and adaptation

Land and ecosystem accounting by providing consistent and timely accounts of land cover, for example the National Plan for Environmental Information (NPEI), State of the Forests Report (SOFR) and System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) and the National Land Account (Australian Bureau of Statistics)

• Providing base data sets for monitoring land use in the human managed land cover classes – including applications such as monitoring grassland, crop production and coverage, pasture extent, drought, biomass, land clearing, irrigation
• Providing base data sets for mapping and monitoring land use, natural resources, water usage through vegetation response, groundwater dependent ecosystems, drought, evapotranspiration, biomass, groundwater dependent ecosystems, remnant vegetation, land degradation, native forest, plantation and forest extent
• Providing land cover information to report on international agreements