A brief characteristic of remote sensing data is presented, pointing to advantages of obtaining the actual and spatial information on landscape objects. The effectiveness of remote sensing data is documented on a set of projects dedicated to land cover mapping at various scales. Land cover is a physical state of the contemporary landscape, as represented by natural and man-modified and created objects. It is simultaneously a good indicator of the present state of land use. From this aspect the most important project was creation of the of the land cover database of Slovakia at the scale 1:100 000 by the CORINE land cover mapping method. Following the other projects are described, such as creating the land cover map of Slovakia at scale 1:500 000, mapping the landscape changes of the 1970s -1990s in four Phare countries and creating of the land cover (habitat types) map of the Morava River floodplain at large scale.