Land Use and Land Cover (LUC) data is an important source of information for a wide range of users from different backgrounds and scientific disciplines. It provides an overview of the different covers on the Earth’s surface (e.g. vegetation, agricultural fields, rocks, water, artificial surfaces…) and how they evolve over time. It also traces how these covers are used (land use) and how this use changes. LUC data can be very useful in an array of different fields. It is especially valuable for understanding the impact that many natural and human-induced processes, such as climate change, deforestation and urbanization, can have on the Earth’s surface. As a result, LUC research has been receiving increasing attention over recent decades, and the number of fields making use of this data is on the rise. Researchers have been proposing new methods and techniques for producing LUC maps. This has increased the number of LUC datasets available at global, continental, regional and local scales. This has also led to an increase in the number of users who decide to make their own LUC maps. The validation of LUC data has also been the subject of specific research and new methods, strategies and techniques have been proposed for validating and analysing LUC maps.