Among some coupled meteorological and chemistry models the choices of physics package for Land Surface Model (LSM) and its pairing with the Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) schemes are often configured with recommended schemes by various researchers. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Advanced Research Weather model (ARW) core coupled with the Community Multi-scale Air Quality Model (CMAQ), the Pleim and Xiu (PX) LSM scheme paired with the Yonsei University (YSU) PBL scheme is often recom-mended. On the other hand for WRF Non-hydrostatic Meso-scale Model (NMM) core of the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and CMAQ, the U.S. National Cen-ters for Environmental Prediction; Oregon State University; Air Force; Hydrological Research Laboratory (Noah) NOAH LSM and Asymmetric Convective Mixing-2 (ACM2) PBL scheme is recommended. The sensitivity of this pairing has been investigated by many researchers. Among many contribution of these recent works, their findings reinforce the fact that LSM and the accuracy of its fundamental data set of Land Use Land Cover LULC) is the basis to capture many important processes pertaining to Air Quality forecasting. The recent change of LULC data from the US Geological Service (USGS) 27 categories to the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP) based 18 categories for WRF-NMM represents fundamental change in the meteorological driver for CMAQ, its coupled Chemistry Transport Model (CTM). The category match-up for LULC posed a challenge to the National Air Quality Forecasting Capability (NAQFC) which consists of WRF-NMM coupled with CMAQ. The challenge is accentuated when finer horizontal grid spacing than the current 12 km grid spacing used in NAQFC is considered. This study utilized data obtained from the recent DISCOVER-AQ measurement campaign conducted in the Baltimore-Washington area in summer of 2011 to investigate the aforementioned LULC match-up along the complex LULC characteristics of the area and its strong influence in PBL, horizontal projection and finer horizontal grid spatialization for emission modeling, and the response in pollutant distribution within a diurnal cycle.