Land-use and land-cover compared with ground observations of land. (Credit: Erle Ellis)

Land-use denotes how humans use the biophysical or ecological properties of land. Land-uses include the modification and/or management of land for agriculture, settlements, forestry and other uses including those that exclude humans from land, as in the designation of nature reserves for conservation. It is often impossible to observe land-use by examining only land-cover by remote sensing as illustrated in the figure. For example, the land-cover type of trees might indicate a land-use type of plantation or a land-use type of conservation.