Visualizing Land Cover and Land-Cover Change: A Review of Existing Methods and Remaining Challenges

Over the past decades, Earth science data have dramatically increased and have been used to understand the Earth system. Land cover and land-cover change (LCLCC) data have been an integral part of monitoring the Earth’s surface, understanding environmental conditions, and managing resources. Visualizing LCLCC plays an important role in increasing the usability of LCLCC data and science for researchers and practitioners. However, visually communicating large, spatiotemporal LCLCC data sets, with different levels of complexity, to a variety of audiences presents a number of challenges. To explore ways to address this matter, this article provides background information on fundamental concepts and methods of data visualization. The authors review visualization methods found in LCLCC literature (2015–2023) and provide illustrative examples for a study domain in California, USA. They discuss challenges associated with developing LCLCC visualizations, with the focus on complex information in a single visualization. To address this challenge, the authors highlight data visualization approaches that aimed at simplifying the high-information content of LCLCC and improving land-cover science communication and the usability of LCLCC data.