Quick questions on Land cover types and global spatial patterns for QCE Geography Unit 3

Geographers classify land cover into a set of broad classes that satellites can detect:

The global pattern of land cover is controlled mainly by climate, which itself varies with latitude. Near the equator, high rainfall and warmth produce a belt of tropical rainforest across the Amazon, Congo and Southeast Asia. Around the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, descending dry air produces the great desert belts: the Sahara, Arabian, Australian and Atacama deserts. In the mid-latitudes, continental interiors with moderate rainfall produce grasslands such as the North American prairies and the Eurasian steppe.

Australia shows the global rule clearly. The continent is dominated by arid and semi-arid cover: spinifex grassland, mulga shrubland and desert occupy the centre and west. Forest and woodland concentrate where rainfall is higher, along the eastern seaboard from Cape York to Tasmania and in the far southwest of Western Australia. Tropical savanna stretches across the monsoonal north.

Spatial patterns of land cover are identified using satellite remote sensing. Sensors such as Landsat and Sentinel record reflected light across multiple bands; vegetation, water, soil and built surfaces each reflect differently, allowing software to classify every pixel into a cover type. Repeated imagery over time lets geographers measure change. National datasets such as the Australian Land Use and Management classification turn this imagery into maps that planners and researchers use.