The successful launch of Arirang satellites allow the acquisition of high resolution satellite imagery of Korean territory and enables the transition from the conventional cultivation area survey method to new image based methods adopted in advanced nations. In this study, we suggested reasonable sizes of the primary sampling unit and the secondary sampling unit for the satellite imagery based sampling design in 8 provinces preselected for this research. The PSU size was determined mainly in consideration of intracorrelation that shows the degree of homogeneity within each cluster and the efficiency of the image process. For the SSU size, we considered the relative standard error and the differences between the land cover maps produced by the Ministry of Environment and the satellite imagery processed by the National Statistical Office.