Аннотация:The present-day landscape methodology of land use/cover change studying is presented. It provides a base for perceiving the world as a system of interrelated territorial units (present-day landscapes) with closed interaction of natural and socio-economic subsystems, different degree and trends of land cover/land use anthropogenic replacement by managed systems of altered structure. The hierarchical land cover classificatory scheme is proposed on the base of analysis of present-day landscape structure, elaboration of integrated landscape modeling principles and scale-dependent land cover applications. Land cover mapping and classification have been conducted at macroregional (the whole Russia), regional (European part of country) and local (key areas) levels using combination of remote sensing data, traditional maps and in-field observations. The resultant land cover maps and databases contain multiple information layers and statistics and could be used for elaboration of rational land use policy and land management in Russia.