The  South  African  user  needs  survey  of  land  cover  classes  and  definitions  conducted  in  May -  June  2016 concluded  on  the  classes  and  definitions  listed  in  this  document.  The  demand  to  have  a  standardised and compatible the land cover data sets it’s
important for the mapping and monitoring wide areas in a consistent manner. These  classes  are  developed  in  a  hierarchical  structure  because  it  offers  the  consistency  and accommodates different levels of information depending on the scale of mapping and the source data used for mapping. The structure has 4 levels and can be defined as higher to lower level. The higher levels are defined as analytical criteria and at the lower levels the analytical criteria increases.  Class criteria are not repeated per level.  Level  4  is  a  class  measure  which  is  based  on  the  source  data  to  be  used  during  mapping,  it  also dependent on the scale of mapping.