O'Neil-Dunne puts land cover assessment expertise in plain language for you in Letters from the SAL: Turning Data Into Information post

Letters from the SAL: Turning Data Into Information:
Beginning in 2005 we embarked on a series of collaborative projects with the US Forest Service that focused on assessing tree canopy in cities. That collaboration has now expanded to include more than 30 communities in the US and Canada. High-resolution land cover was a key input to the assessment process. The decision makers we collaborated with were demanding, they wanted not just high-resolution data, but accurate high-resolution data. Furthermore, developing the land cover dataset had to be cost effective. After all, there is no point in assessing the tree canopy if the assessment does not leave you with any funds to plant trees.