The South African National Land Cover Data Story

ISO/TC211 standards used

ISO 19144-1:2009 - Geographic information — Classification systems — Part 1: Classification system structure

ISO 19144-2:2012 - Geographic information — Classification systems — Part 2: Land Cover Meta Language (LCML)

SANS 1877-2004 - A standard land cover classification scheme for remote Sensing in South Africa. Edition 2 of SANS 1877 currently reviewed and on DSS

How the standards are used in our processes/ projects

The above standards were adopted as SANS 19144-1:2012 and SANS 19144-2:2014. They provided guidance in reviewing SANS 1877:2004 a standard land cover classification scheme for remote sensing in South Africa. SANS 19144-1 was used to define the classes in a hierarchical structure whereas SANS 19144-2 was used to define the land cover class characteristics to ensure that the South African land cover classification system is reliable, consistent and comparable to other land cover classes regardless the land type and mapping scale or the mapping method and the location.

Benefits for the user

• This standards is of benefit to all data producers including National, Provincial and local government. Data producers develop Land Cover dataset on different scales, therefore the standard is used as a tool to integrate these datasets .
• It has provided benefits for National Land Cover data coordination under the Base Dataset Custodianship Policy. In compliance to the Spatial Data Infrastructure Act No 54,2003. 
• All level 1 classes complies to the relevant legislated statuary organizations e.g. waterbodies conform to Department of Water and Sanitation legislation.

Country

South Africa

Organization

Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development

Contact person

Bulelwa Semoli, November 2023