Land cover data documents how much of a region is covered by  forests, wetlands, impervious surfaces, agriculture, and other land and water  types. Water types include wetlands or open water. Land use shows how people use  the landscape – whether for development, conservation, or mixed uses. The  different types of land cover can be managed or used quite differently.

Land cover can be determined by analyzing satellite and  aerial imagery. Land use cannot be determined from satellite imagery. Land  cover maps provide information to help managers best understand the current  landscape. To see change over time, land cover maps for several different years  are needed. With this information, managers can evaluate past management  decisions as well as gain insight into the possible effects of their current  decisions before they are implemented.

Coastal managers use land cover data and maps to better  understand the impacts of natural phenomena and human use of the landscape. Maps  can help managers assess urban growth, model water quality issues, predict and  assess impacts from floods and storm surges, track wetland losses and potential  impacts from sea level rise, prioritize areas for conservation efforts, and compare  land cover changes with effects in the environment or to connections in  socioeconomic changes such as increasing population.

cite from：https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/lclu.html

总结：

1）地表覆盖类型可以通过航空卫星影像处理后得到，但是地表利用数据并不能通过航空影像直接得到。

1）地表覆盖类型和地表利用类型不是一一对应的，同一种地表覆盖类型可能对应不同的使用两类型，反之亦相同。

2）地表覆盖类型的变化能够有效解释自然和人类的活动规律和现象

   最近大论文写的不太顺利，被一个SMOS天线的权重计算问题卡好几天了，L2产品反演的说明书写的不详细，ESA 的解答也没能实质性的帮助，深刻体会到求人不如求己！！

   最近又把L1C的说明书大体翻了一下，找到一个关键点，思路有了，还要搞块数据写个程序测试一下~~现在感觉思路分叉的弊端暴露出来了，思路太多，容易注重猜测而缺少理论和实验的验证，在个别问题的解决上犹豫不决拖泥带水~~以后得收收思路，不能太贪心~~