{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,14]],"date-time":"2025-05-14T04:18:36Z","timestamp":1747196316532,"version":"3.40.5"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"IGI Global","issue":"3","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2014,7,1]]},"abstract":"<p>Land classification is so central to geography that its use, and the use of its derivative and corresponding products, is seldom even questioned. Since its earliest implementations land classification has adapted to changes in geographic scale and in the nature of the categorical systematics upon which it is based. Land classification has changed in its techniques and in how it adapts to technological changes, particularly those related to remote sensing and geographic information systems. The adaptation of land classification to digital pixel-based classification spawned a wide range of land classification error analysis techniques. These techniques do not easily transfer to non-pixel based classification error analysis as recent research on rapid land assessment methodologies and land change error analysis has shown. This disparity suggests a need to reevaluate the very nature of land classification research. To begin such an evaluation, this lecture provides a retrospective on the roots of land classification research, examines some of the milestones of that research, and describes the divergent paths such research has taken. It examines the importance of land classification in these times of ever decreasing global resources, and reviews its potential legal, social, and economic implications. Based on this retrospective, this paper advances the need for geographic researchers to envision land classification not only as a set of techniques, but more generally to focus on systematic geography in all its facets as a research agenda in its own right.<\/p>","DOI":"10.4018\/ijagr.2014070106","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2014,11,6]],"date-time":"2014-11-06T15:45:55Z","timestamp":1415288755000},"page":"82-92","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Land Classification Research"],"prefix":"10.4018","volume":"5","author":[{"given":"Michael N.","family":"DeMers","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geography, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, USA"}]}],"member":"2432","reference":[{"journal-title":"Hierarchy: Perspectives for ecological complexity","year":"1982","author":"T. F. H.Allen","key":"ijagr.2014070106-0"},{"journal-title":"A land use and land cover classification system for use with remote sensor data. Geological Survey Professional Paper 671","year":"1972","author":"J. R.Anderson","key":"ijagr.2014070106-1"},{"journal-title":"A land use and land cover classification system for use with remote sensor data. Geological Survey Professional Paper 964","year":"1976","author":"J. R.Anderson","key":"ijagr.2014070106-2"},{"journal-title":"Description of the ecoregions of the United States. Misc. Pub. 1391","year":"1995","author":"R. G.Bailey","key":"ijagr.2014070106-3"},{"journal-title":"Geographic objects with indeterminate boundaries","year":"1996","author":"P. A.Burrough","key":"ijagr.2014070106-4"},{"key":"ijagr.2014070106-5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1068\/b100331"},{"key":"ijagr.2014070106-6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.5962\/bhl.title.4108","author":"L. M.Cowardin","year":"1979","journal-title":"Classification of wetlands and deepwater habitats of the United States"},{"key":"ijagr.2014070106-7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/0264-8377(88)90075-0"},{"key":"ijagr.2014070106-8","first-page":"1","article-title":"Landform-based eco-regional mapping in arid environments: lessons from the Chihuahuan Desert.","author":"M. N.DeMers","year":"2010","journal-title":"Papers of the Applied Geography Conferences"},{"key":"ijagr.2014070106-9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-8306.2006.00498.x"},{"key":"ijagr.2014070106-10","unstructured":"Doe, W. D., & Bailey, R. G. (2007). Military operating environments: An ecoregions framework to characterize U.S. Army testing and training lands as operational analogs. Fort Collins, CO: Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands, Colorado State University. Interim Report, 56 p. with CD ROM of ecoregion maps and climate diagrams."},{"key":"ijagr.2014070106-11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4018\/jagr.2011070103"},{"journal-title":"Montfort: A study in landscape types in southwestern Wisconsin. The Geographic Society of Chicago Bulletin No. 9","year":"1933","author":"V. C.Finch","key":"ijagr.2014070106-12"},{"key":"ijagr.2014070106-13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/00045603909357315"},{"key":"ijagr.2014070106-14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/00045603909357322"},{"issue":"4","key":"ijagr.2014070106-15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"413","DOI":"10.1080\/00045603909357332","article-title":"G. The character of systematic geography.","volume":"29","author":"R.Hartshorne","year":"1939","journal-title":"Annals of the Association of American Geographers"},{"issue":"65","key":"ijagr.2014070106-16","first-page":"131","article-title":"The Hettner-Hartshorne connection: Reconsidering the process of reception and transformation of a geographic concept.","volume":"33","author":"F.Harvey","year":"1998","journal-title":"Finsterra"},{"key":"ijagr.2014070106-17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.landurbplan.2005.02.009"},{"key":"ijagr.2014070106-18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/00045603609357083"},{"key":"ijagr.2014070106-19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-8306.1968.tb01653.x"},{"issue":"3","key":"ijagr.2014070106-20","first-page":"862","article-title":"A coastal land cover classification system for the NOAA Coastwatch Change Analysis Project.","volume":"9","author":"V. V.Klemas","year":"1993","journal-title":"Journal of Coastal Research"},{"key":"ijagr.2014070106-21","unstructured":"Klimaszewski-Patterson, A. (2011). Limitations of assessing synthetic natural boundaries in the Chihuahuan Desert. MA thesis, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces."},{"key":"ijagr.2014070106-22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/210770"},{"key":"ijagr.2014070106-23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/1930419"},{"key":"ijagr.2014070106-24","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/211640"},{"key":"ijagr.2014070106-25","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/1935336"},{"key":"ijagr.2014070106-26","unstructured":"McCleary, G. F. 1969. The dasymetric method in thematic cartography, PhD Dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison."},{"key":"ijagr.2014070106-27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.apgeog.2005.03.004"},{"key":"ijagr.2014070106-28","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-8306.1987.tb00149.x"},{"key":"ijagr.2014070106-29","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/00330120701724152"},{"key":"ijagr.2014070106-30","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/01431161.2011.552923"},{"key":"ijagr.2014070106-31","first-page":"440","article-title":"About different kinds of uncertainty in collections of spatial data.","volume":"7","author":"V. B.Robinson","year":"1985","journal-title":"Auto-Carto"},{"key":"ijagr.2014070106-32","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/00045602109357019"},{"key":"ijagr.2014070106-33","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1559\/152304076784080230"},{"key":"ijagr.2014070106-34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Turner, B. L. II, & Robbins, P.. (2008). Land change science and political ecology: Similarities, differences, and implications for sustainability science. Annual Reviews in Environment and Resources, 33,6.1-6.22.","DOI":"10.1146\/annurev.environ.33.022207.104943"},{"issue":"2","key":"ijagr.2014070106-35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"82","DOI":"10.1080\/00224561.1983.12436254","article-title":"LESA\u2014agricultural land evaluation and site assessment.","volume":"38","author":"L. E.Wright","year":"1983","journal-title":"Journal of Soil and Water Conservation"},{"key":"ijagr.2014070106-36","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-8306.1957.tb01524.x"}],"container-title":["International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research"],"original-title":[],"language":"ng","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.igi-global.com\/viewtitle.aspx?TitleId=118261","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,13]],"date-time":"2025-05-13T15:30:31Z","timestamp":1747150231000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/services.igi-global.com\/resolvedoi\/resolve.aspx?doi=10.4018\/ijagr.2014070106"}},"subtitle":["A Retrospective and Agenda"],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2014,7,1]]},"references-count":37,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2014,7]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.4018\/ijagr.2014070106","relation":{},"ISSN":["1947-9654","1947-9662"],"issn-type":[{"type":"print","value":"1947-9654"},{"type":"electronic","value":"1947-9662"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2014,7,1]]}}}