Íslenskar landbúnaðarrannsóknir - 01.09.1982, Side 46

44 ÍSLENZKAR LANDBÚNAÐARRANNSÓKNIR
eða 4 stig), verður að afla upplýsinga um
landnýtingu á fleiri vegu.
Ætlunin er, að þessi flokkun lands og
landsnytja verði notuð á næstunni bæði í
bæjum og sveitum. Þá kemur væntanlega
ljós, hversu haldgóð hún reynist og hvaða
ABSTRACT
Land Use and Land Cover Classijication and
Mapping in Iceland
Gylfi Már Guðbergsson
Department of Geosciences, University of Iceland
Land use has changed greatly in Iceland
during the last decades as the society has
changed for being predominatly rural and
agricultural to a urban diversified society.
Adequate information on many com-
plex aspects of the nation’s activities is
needed in order to make decisions. Know-
ledge about existing land use and land
cover and how it changes through time is
one such aspect. Information on the
current utilization of the land and land use
maps are among the main prerequisites for
improving land use and they are important
to overcome the problems of uncontrolled
development, to implement effective plans
for local and regional development and to
prevent deterioration of environmental
quality.
Various agencies (in many countries)
have collected data about the land and the
demand for standardized land use data has
increased. Recentdevelopments in remote
sensing and data processing make the need
breytingar eru nauðsynlegar, til þess að
hún megi teljast nothæf við kortagerð.
Að lokum skal stúdentum þakkað, sem
hafa tekið mjög virkan þátt í þessu starfi
undanfarin ár.
for this standardization even more evident.
A uniform land use and land cover
classification system, which can be used
nationally and even internationally, is also
desirable.
A land use and land cover classification
system for Iceland which is presented here
is the result of experimental classification
and mapping in a land use course in the
Departmeht of Geosciences. The proposed
system uses the main features of existing
classifications that are widely used and the
first and second levels arre amenable to
data derived from aircraft and satellite
remote sensors. The first and second levels
ofthe classification are compared with the
U.S. Geologial Survey classification sys-
tem described in U.S.G.S. Professional
Paper 964. The major criticism of that
system concerns first level category numer
8, „Tundra“, which is difíicult or impossi-
ble to detect on small scale aerial photo-
graps and also to separate from some of the
classes in other categories, such as wet-
land, rangeland and barren land. The
third and foruth levels of the classification
system are put forward as suggestions but
they can be changed in order to meet
particular needs.