Land Cover of Illinois Statistical Summary 1999-2000

Category Definitions

Agricultural Land

Agricultural Land comprises land areas that are currently under intensive cultivation, or other land that is devoted to agricultural land uses within rural areas. The following categories, accompanied by their respective category codes, are included within Agricultural Land:

Value: Land Cover Category: Definition:
10 AGRICULTURAL LAND*  
11 Corn  
12 Soybeans  
13 Winter Wheat  
14 Other Small Grains & Hay  
15 Winter Wheat/Soybeans This is a double-cropped category.
16 Other Agriculture Includes orchards, vineyards, sod fields, snap beans, green peas, and other crops.
17 Rural Grassland Incorporates permanent pastureland, roadsides and fence lines, waterways, prairies, and other grassland cover located in rural areas.

 

Forest & Partial Forest/Savanna Land

Forested land includes areas that are predominantly covered with trees and woody vegetation. The following categories, accompanied by their respective category codes, are included within Forest & Partial Forest/ Savanna Land:

Value: Land Cover Category: Definition:
20 FORESTED LAND  
21 Upland Closed-canopy, deciduous wooded areas characterized by tree species that possess seasonal change situated within uplands.
25 Partial Canopy/Savanna Open-canopy, deciduous wooded areas characterized by tree species that possess seasonal change situated within uplands.
26 Coniferous Wooded areas dominated by pine and other coniferous tree species.

 

Urban and Built-Up Land

Urban and Built-Up Land comprises land areas covered with manmade structures, and includes surfaces that have been developed or "built-up" with structures such as buildings, roadways, parking lots, driveways, and other such structures that form impervious surfaces. The Urban and Built-Up Land category is further subdivided into categories based upon the relative amount of impervious surface and includes the following, accompanied by their respective category codes:

Value: Land Cover Category: Definition:
30 URBAN AND BUILT-UP LAND  
31 High Density All, or nearly all of the land surface is covered with manmade structures.
32 Low/Medium Density Up to 50% of the land surface is covered with manmade structures, intermixed with other cover such as Urban Open Space and Forest & Partial Forest/ Savanna lands.
35 Urban Open Space Includes parks, golf courses, cemeteries, and other grassland-like cover within urban and built-up areas. Areas of Low/Medium Density Urban will be intermixed with Urban Open Space.

 

Wetland

Wetland includes forested and nonforested cover types generally situated within low-lying areas that are characterized by wet or saturated soil conditions during a portion of the year. The following categories, accompanied by their respective category codes, are included within Wetland:

Value: Land Cover Category: Definition:
40 WETLAND  
41 Shallow Marsh/Wet Meadow Nonforested areas characterized by standing water or saturated soil conditions for brief to moderate periods during the growing season. Emergent vegetation is usually present during the year.
42 Deep Marsh Nonforested areas characterized by standing water or saturated soil conditions on a semi-permanent or permanent basis during the year.
43 Seasonally/Temporarily Flooded Nonforested areas that are usually present in the floodplain and flooded in the spring. Emergent vegetation is usually present during the summer and fall seasons.
44 Floodplain Forest Closed-canopy, forested areas situated in lowlands and floodplains that are that are temporarily or seasonally flooded.
48 Swamp Forested wetlands with a permanent or semi-permanent water regime.
49 Shallow Water Permanently flooded areas of local extent which are a few meters in depth and situated at the land/water interface. Some emergent vegetation may be present.

 

Other

These land cover categories do not fit within the definitions of the principal land cover categories described above and have therefore been placed in an Other principal category. The following categories, accompanied by their respective category codes, are included within Other:

Value: Land Cover Category: Definition:
50 OTHER  
51 Surface Water Lakes, rivers, and major stream courses that contain water the entire year.
52 Barren & Exposed Land Land surfaces without vegetation or structures including quarries, bare soil surfaces, shorelines and beaches.
53 Clouds Areas obscured on the original Landsat satellite imagery by significant areas of clouds and associated cloud shadows.
54 Cloud Shadows  

 

* NOTE: Land cover categories with the codes of 10, 20, 30 , 40 and 50 are termed principal categories.

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