Monitoring is interpreted as a planned, systematic and continuous collection of representative characteristics about various objects, for instance landscape objects, with the aim to contribute to their regular assessment. The paper brings a overview of international programmes and projects dealing with the landscape and land cover monitoring: CORINE Land Cover (CLC), Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES), Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), Monitoring Land Use/Cover Dynamics (MOLAND), National Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP), Global Environmental Monitoring System (GEMS), Land Use/Cover Area Frame Statistical Survey (LUCAS) and other. Brief overview of satellites and the data provided by them as an integral part of land cover monitoring at the world, European and regional or country levels is also offered. Participation of Slovakia in the CLC projects since 1992 means that so far three data layers concerning land cover of Slovakia (about occurrence and area of the individual LC classes): CLC1990 (+/- three years), CLC2000 (+/- one year) and CLC2006 (+/- one year) were generated. The layers are compatible with those of other European countries. Comparison of the quoted layers led to the conclusion that in the years 1990 – 2000 in Slovakia 2 070 km2 (4.2 % of its total surface area) of land cover changed and in the 2000 – 2006 period the area of changes dropped to 769 km2 (1.5 % of total surface area of Slovakia).