The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) Cropland Data Layer (CDL) is an annual raster, geo-referenced, crop-specific land cover data layer produced using satellite imagery and extensive agricultural ground reference data. The program began in 1997 with limited coverage and in 2008 forward expanded coverage to the entire Continental United States. Please note that no farmer reported data are derivable from the Cropland Data Layer.

The Cropland Data Layer (CDL) is a crop-specific land cover data layer created annually for the continental United States using moderate resolution satellite imagery and extensive agricultural ground truth. The CDL is created by the USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), Research and Development Division, Geospatial Information Branch, Spatial Analysis Research Section. For detailed FAQ please visit CropScape and Cropland Data Layers - FAQs. To explore details about the classification accuracies and utility of the data, see state-level omission and commission errors by crop type and year. The asset date is aligned with the calendar year of harvest. For most crops the planted and harvest year are the same. Some exceptions: winter wheat is unique, as it is planted in the prior year. A hay crop like alfalfa could have been planted years prior. For winter wheat the data also have a class called "Double Crop Winter Wheat/Soybeans". Some mid-latitude areas of the US have conditions such that a second crop (usually soybeans) can be planted immediately after the harvest of winter wheat and itself still be harvested within the same year. So for mapping winter wheat areas use both classes (use both values 24 and 26). While the CDL date is aligned with year of harvest, the map itself is more representative of what was planted. In other words, a small percentage of fields on a given year will not be harvested. Some non-agricultural categories are duplicate due to two very different epochs in methodology. The non-ag codes 63-65 and 81-88 are holdovers from the older methodology and will only appear in CDLs from 2007 and earlier. The non-ag codes from 111-195 are from the current methodology which uses the USGS NLCD as non-ag training and will only appear in CDLs 2007 and newer. 2007 was a transition year so there may be both sets of categories in the 2007 national product but will not appear within the same state. Note: The 2024 CDL only has the data band. The cultivated and confidence bands are yet to be released by the provider.

The Cropland Data Layer (CDL), hosted on CropScape, provides a raster, geo-referenced, crop-specific land cover map for the continental United States. The CDL also includes a crop mask layer and planting frequency layers, as well as boundary, water and road layers. The Boundary Layer options provided are County, Agricultural Statistics Districts (ASD), State, and Region. The data is created annually using moderate resolution satellite imagery and extensive agricultural ground truth. Users can select a geographic area of interest or import one, then access acreage statistics for a specific year or view the change from one year to another. The data can be exported or added to the CDL. The information is useful for issues related to agricultural sustainability, biodiversity, and land cover monitoring, especially due to extreme weather events. Resources in this dataset:Resource Title: CropScape and Cropland Data Layer - National Download. File Name: Web Page, url: https://www.nass.usda.gov/Research_and_Science/Cropland/Release/index.php Downloads available as zipped files at https://www.nass.usda.gov/Research_and_Science/Cropland/Release/index.php --

National CDL's -- by year, 2008-2020. Cropland Data Layer provides a raster, geo-referenced, crop-specific land cover map for the continental United States. The CDL also includes a crop mask layer and planting frequency layers, as well as boundary, water and road layers. The Boundary Layer options provided are County, Agricultural Statistics Districts (ASD), State, and Region. National Cultivated Layer -- based on the most recent five years (2013-2020). National Frequency Layer -- the 2017 Crop Frequency Layer identifies crop specific planting frequency and are based on land cover information derived from the 2008 through 2020CDL's. There are currently four individual crop frequency data layers that represent four major crops: corn, cotton, soybeans, and wheat. National Confidence Layer -- the Confidence Layer spatially represents the predicted confidence that is associated with that output pixel, based upon the rule(s) that were used to classify it. Western/Eastern/Central U.S.

Visit https://nassgeodata.gmu.edu/CropScape/ for the interactive map including tutorials and basic instructions. These options include a "Demo Video", "Help", "Developer Guide", and "FAQ".

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) Cropland Data Layer (CDL) is a raster, geo-referenced, crop-specific land cover data layer.

This is the 2022 NASS USDA CDL dataset for Minnesota. The dataset was clipped and downloaded using the USDA NASS CropCROS online web application: https://croplandcros.scinet.usda.gov/

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) did minimal processing on this dataset to make more useful for Minnesota-specific work. The lineage section describes these steps taken, but the full description of the Cropland Data Layer can be found in the NASS USDA Metadata at https://www.nass.usda.gov/Research_and_Science/Cropland/metadata/metadata_mn22.htm

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) Cropland Data Layer (CDL) is a raster, geo-referenced, crop-specific land cover data layer.

This is the 2016 NASS USDA CDL dataset for Minnesota. The dataset was clipped and downloaded using the USDA NASS CropScape online web application: http://nassgeodata.gmu.edu/CropScape/

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) did minimal processing on this dataset to make more useful for Minnesota-specific work. The lineage section describes these steps taken, but the full description of the Cropland Data Layer can be found in the NASS USDA Metadata.

Abstract

This dataset, developed by the Native Lands Advocacy Project summarizes data from the USDA Cropland Data Layer for 552 unique native land areas in the coterminous United States. According to the the USDA, the Cropland Data Layer is a “raster, geo-referenced, crop-specific land cover data layer created annually for the continental United States. The CDL is created using moderate resolution satellite imagery and extensive agricultural ground truthing. The purpose of the Cropland Data Layer program is to use satellite imagery to provide acreage estimates to the Agricultural Statistics Board for major commodities and to produce digital, crop-specific, categorized geo-referenced output products.” The CDL data has been collected since 1997 making it an excellent tool for analyzing long-term land cover trends.

The data includes 130 categories ranging from specific types of crops, pasturelands, developed lands, wetlands, etc. According to Lark et al. (2017) “the CDL covers the conterminous 48 states with field-level resolution and crop classification accuracies typically upwards of 90% for major commodities like corn, cotton, rice, soybeans, and wheat.” The Cropland Data Layer has been used in hundreds of studies on a range of topics from agriculture productivity, crop variability, impacts of climate change, climate resiliency studies, estimates of carrying capacity, etc.Boundary data used to define summary areas was obtained from the 2019 US Census Bureau’s TIGER/Line Shapefile for American Indian areas in the United States which includes both American Indians and Alaskan Natives, a total of 845 unique features or land areas. From this we removed all features/areas outside of the conterminous United States leaving a total of 549 features/areas.

The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) releases the annual Cropland Data Layer (CDL) via the NASS CropScape geospatial portal. The CDL product depicts agricultural land cover over the Continental United States at 30 meters resolution. CropScape includes historical data dating back to 1997 for some locales. The CDL is an annual raster, geo-referenced, crop-specific land cover data layer produced using satellite imagery and extensive agricultural ground truth collected during the current growing season. The strength and emphasis of CropScape and the CDL is agricultural land cover. Please note that no farmer reported data are derivable from CropScape or the Cropland Data Layer.Please reference CropScape (https://nassgeodata.gmu.edu/CropScape/) or the official CDL website (https://www.nass.usda.gov/Research_and_Science/Cropland/SARS1a.php) for a list of the available states and years of data and the individual metadata files that contain the technical details. NASS developed both the CropScape and VegScape web services in cooperation with the Center for Spatial Information Science and Systems, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA. Metadata, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), and the most current year of data is available free for download at the official website: https://www.nass.usda.gov/Research_and_Science/Cropland/Release/index.php

description:

The USDA-NASS 2004 North Dakota Cropland Data Layer is a raster, geo-referenced, categorized land cover data layer produced using satellite imagery from the Thematic Mapper (TM) instrument on Landsat 5. The imagery was collected between the dates of 05/03/2004 and 09/08/2004. The approximate scale is 1:100,000 with a ground resolution of 30 meters by 30 meters. The North Dakota data layer is aggregated to 16 standardized categories for display purposes with the emphasis being agricultural land cover. This is part of an annual series in which several states are categorized annually based on the extensive field observations collected during the annual NASS June Agricultural Survey. However, no farmer reported data is included or derivable on the Cropland Data Layer CD-ROM.

Constraints:
Users of our Cropland Data Layer (CDL) and associated raster and vector data files are solely responsible for interpretations made from these products. The CDL is provided "as is". USDA-NASS does not warrant results you may obtain by using the Cropland Data Layer. Feel free to contact our staff at (HQ_RD_OD@nass.usda.gov) if technical questions arise in the use of our Cropland Data Layer. NASS does provide considerable metadata on the CDL in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's) section on this CDL website, and on the ordered CD's. Also, there are substantial statistical performance measures by Analysis District within a State on the Landsat data categorization accuracies for each CD for each year. Not to be used for navigation, for informational purposes only. See full disclaimer for more information.

The USDA-NASS 2004 North Dakota Cropland Data Layer is a raster, geo-referenced, categorized land cover data layer produced using satellite imagery from the Thematic Mapper (TM) instrument on Landsat 5. The imagery was collected between the dates of 05/03/2004 and 09/08/2004. The approximate scale is 1:100,000 with a ground resolution of 30 meters by 30 meters. The North Dakota data layer is aggregated to 16 standardized categories for display purposes with the emphasis being agricultural land cover. This is part of an annual series in which several states are categorized annually based on the extensive field observations collected during the annual NASS June Agricultural Survey. However, no farmer reported data is included or derivable on the Cropland Data Layer CD-ROM.

Constraints:
Users of our Cropland Data Layer (CDL) and associated raster and vector data files are solely responsible for interpretations made from these products. The CDL is provided "as is". USDA-NASS does not warrant results you may obtain by using the Cropland Data Layer. Feel free to contact our staff at (HQ_RD_OD@nass.usda.gov) if technical questions arise in the use of our Cropland Data Layer. NASS does provide considerable metadata on the CDL in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's) section on this CDL website, and on the ordered CD's. Also, there are substantial statistical performance measures by Analysis District within a State on the Landsat data categorization accuracies for each CD for each year. Not to be used for navigation, for informational purposes only. See full disclaimer for more information.

Results and data associated with Lark et al. 2021: Accuracy, Bias, and Improvements in Mapping Crops and Cropland across the United States Using the USDA Cropland Data Layer.

Accuracy data for original, non-aggregated CDL classes are located in the following files:

'NASS_CDL_National_20XX_original_accuracy' files contain each year's data and calculation results for original, non-aggregated CDL classes

'Nationwide_original_CDL_accuracy_2008to2017_w_ref_area' is the nationwide reference producers and users accuracy for average crops, average non-crops, and the individual classes for all years.

'State_level_annual_ref_acreage' is the percent of reference acreage for both crops and non-crops by each state and national total for all years, used for the area-weighting calculations.

Accuracy data for aggregated CDL classes are located in the following files:

'NASS_CDL_National_20XX_superclass_accuracy' files contain tables for each year that include the total and reference acreage of the datasets, the users and producers superclass accuracies for the individual classes, and consolidated crop and consolidated non-crop accuracy, as well as the raw and intermediate data used to calculate these results.

'Annual_CDL_superclass_accuracy_by_state_crop_noncrop' contains the average crop and non-crop superclass accuracies (i.e. the consolidated crop and consolidated non-crop accuracy) for the nation and for the individual states for all years.

Citation: Lark TJ, Schelly IH, Gibbs HK. Accuracy, Bias, and Improvements in Mapping Crops and Cropland across the United States Using the USDA Cropland Data Layer. Remote Sensing. 2021; 13(5):968. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13050968

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) Cropland Data Layer (CDL) is a raster, geo-referenced, crop-specific land cover data layer.

This is the 2017 NASS USDA CDL dataset for Minnesota. The dataset was clipped and downloaded using the USDA NASS CropScape online web application: http://nassgeodata.gmu.edu/CropScape/

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) did minimal processing on this dataset to make more useful for Minnesota-specific work. The lineage section describes these steps taken, but the full description of the Cropland Data Layer can be found in the NASS USDA Metadata.

The USDA, NASS Cropland Data Layer (CDL) is a raster, geo-referenced, crop-specific land cover data layer. The 2015 CDL has a ground resolution of 30 meters. The CDL is produced using satellite imagery from the Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS sensor and the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) DEIMOS-1 and UK2 sensors collected during the current growing season. Some CDL states used additional satellite imagery and ancillary inputs to supplement and improve the classification. These additional sources can include the United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Elevation Dataset (NED) and the imperviousness and canopy data layers from the USGS National Land Cover Database 2011 (NLCD 2011). Agricultural training and validation data are derived from the Farm Service Agency (FSA) Common Land Unit (CLU) Program. The most current version of the NLCD is used as non-agricultural training and validation data. Please refer to the 'Supplemental_Information' Section of this metadata file for a complete list of all imagery, ancillary data, and training/validation data used to generate this state's CDL. The strength and emphasis of the CDL is agricultural land cover. Please note that no farmer reported data are derivable from the Cropland Data Layer.

The USDA, NASS Cropland Data Layer (CDL) is a raster, geo-referenced, crop-specific land cover data layer. The 2014 CDL has a ground resolution of 30 meters. The CDL is produced using satellite imagery from the Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS sensor, Landsat 7 ETM+ sensor, and the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) DEIMOS-1 and UK2 sensors collected during the current growing season. Some CDL states used additional satellite imagery and ancillary inputs to supplement and improve the classification. These additional sources can include the United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Elevation Dataset (NED), the imperviousness and canopy data layers from the USGS National Land Cover Database 2006 (NLCD 2006), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) 250 meter 16 day Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) composites. Agricultural training and validation data are derived from the Farm Service Agency (FSA) Common Land Unit (CLU) Program. The NLCD 2006 is used as non-agricultural training and validation data. Please refer to the 'Supplemental_Information' Section of this metadata file for a complete list of all imagery, ancillary data, and training/validation data used to generate this state's CDL. The strength and emphasis of the CDL is agricultural land cover. Please note that no farmer reported data are derivable from the Cropland Data Layer.

Constraints:
Users of the Cropland Data Layer (CDL) are solely responsible for interpretations made from these products. The CDL is provided 'as is' and the USDA, NASS does not warrant results you may obtain using the Cropland Data Layer. Contact our staff at (HQ_RD_OD@nass.usda.gov) if technical questions arise in the use of the CDL. NASS does maintain a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's) section on the CDL website at http://www.nass.usda.gov/research/Cropland/SARS1a.htm Not to be used for navigation, for informational purposes only. See full disclaimer for more information.

Dataset

This dataset was created by Larbi Saidchikh

Contents

Crop-specific land use data from the Cropland Data Layer for the Chicago Wilderness Region

The USDA, NASS Cropland Data Layer (CDL) is a raster, geo-referenced, crop-specific land cover data layer. The 2010 CDL has a ground resolution of 30 meters. The CDL is produced using satellite imagery from the Landsat 5 TM sensor, Landsat 7 ETM+ sensor, and the Indian Remote Sensing RESOURCESAT-1 (IRS-P6) Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) collected during the current growing season. Some CDL states used additional satellite imagery and ancillary inputs to supplement and improve the classification. These additional sources can include the United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Elevation Dataset (NED), the USGS National Land Cover Database 2001 (NLCD 2001), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) 250 meter 16 day Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) composites. Agricultural training and validation data are derived from the Farm Service Agency (FSA) Common Land Unit (CLU) Program. The NLCD 2001 is used as non-agricultural training and validation data. Please refer to the 'Supplemental_Information' Section of this metadata file for a complete list of all imagery, ancillary data, and training/validation data used to generate this state's CDL. The strength and emphasis of the CDL is agricultural land cover. Please note that no farmer reported data are derivable from the Cropland Data Layer.

The USDA, NASS Cropland Data Layer (CDL) is a raster, geo-referenced, crop-specific land cover data layer with a ground resolution of 56 meters. The CDL is produced using satellite imagery from the Indian Remote Sensing RESOURCESAT-1 (IRS-P6) Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) collected during the current growing season. Ancillary classification inputs include: the United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Elevation Dataset (NED), the USGS National Land Cover Dataset 2001 (NLCD 2001), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) 250 meter 16 day Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) composites. Agricultural training and validation data are derived from the Farm Service Agency (FSA) Common Land Unit (CLU) Program. The NLCD 2001 is used as non-agricultural training and validation data. The strength and emphasis of the CDL is agricultural land cover. Please note that no farmer reported data are derivable from the Cropland Data Layer.

Constraints:
Users of our Cropland Data Layer (CDL) and associated raster and vector data files are solely responsible for interpretations made from these products. The CDL is provided "as is". USDA-NASS does not warrant results you may obtain by using the Cropland Data Layer. Feel free to contact our staff at (HQ_RD_OD@nass.usda.gov) if technical questions arise in the use of our Cropland Data Layer. NASS does provide considerable metadata and substantial statistical performance measures in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's) section on the CDL website and on the CD-ROM and/or DVD. Not to be used for navigation, for informational purposes only. See full disclaimer for more information.

This dataset contains summary tables of land cover from the Cropland Data Layer (CDL) for individual stream catchments of the conterminous United States from the National Hydrography Dataset Plus Version 2.1 (United States Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service, 2024; McKay and others, 2012). These data were summarized from primarily 30 meter grid cell raster data for the years 2000 through 2022. This data release contains 23 parquet tables that can be linked to the NHD Plus v2 dataset using the COMID unique identifier and a column for each CDL land cover class. From 2008 onwards, these data are available for the conterminous United States. From 2000 to 2007, the CDL is only available for select states. For convenience, an additional parquet table is included with a column for COMID and columns containing a flag indicating whether CDL data exist for each year from 2000 through 2022. Parquet tables can be accessed using the "arrow" package in RStudio. An example command to open a file is: arrow::read_parquet(filepath, "cdl_2000_table.parquet"))

A decision tree algorithm was employed to refine Cropland Data Layer (CDL) using spatial and temporal information. The Refined Cropland Data Layer (R-CDL) could be used as an alternative to researchers as it provides more accurate cropland information. Four annual RCDL maps were produced for the contiguous United States from the year 2017 to 2020.

Cite this article:

Lin, L., Di, L., Zhang, C. et al. Validation and refinement of cropland data layer using a spatial-temporal decision tree algorithm. Sci Data 9, 63 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01169-w

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) Cropland Data Layer (CDL) is a raster, geo-referenced, crop-specific land cover data layer.

This is the 2010 NASS USDA CDL dataset for Minnesota. The dataset was clipped and downloaded using the USDA NASS CropScape online web application: http://nassgeodata.gmu.edu/CropScape/

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) did minimal processing on this dataset to make more useful for Minnesota-specific work. The lineage section describes these steps taken, but the full description of the Cropland Data Layer can be found in the NASS USDA Metadata.

Introduction and Rationale:Due to our increasing understanding of the role the surrounding landscape plays in ecological processes, a detailed characterization of land cover, including both agricultural and natural habitats, is ever more important for both researchers and conservation practitioners. Unfortunately, in the United States, different types of land cover data are split across thematic datasets that emphasize agricultural or natural vegetation, but not both. To address this data gap and reduce duplicative efforts in geospatial processing, we merged two major datasets, the LANDFIRE National Vegetation Classification (NVC) and USDA-NASS Cropland Data Layer (CDL), to produce integrated ‘Spatial Products for Agriculture and Nature’ (SPAN). Our workflow leveraged strengths of the NVC and the CDL to produce detailed rasters comprising both agricultural and natural land-cover classes. We generated SPAN for each year from 2012-2021 for the conterminous United States, quantified agreement between input layers and accuracy of our merged product, and published the complete workflow necessary to update SPAN. In our validation analyses, we found that approximately 5.5% of NVC agricultural pixels conflicted with the CDL, but we resolved a majority of these conflicts based on surrounding agricultural land, leaving only 0.6% of agricultural pixels unresolved in the final version of SPAN.Contents:Spatial dataNational rasters of land cover in the conterminous United States: 2012-2021Rasters of pixels mismatched between CDL and NVC: 2012-2021Resources in this dataset:Resource Title: SPAN land cover in the conterminous United States: 2012-2021 - SCINet File Name: KammererNationalRasters.zip Resource Description: GeoTIFF rasters showing location of pixels that are mismatched between 2016 NVC and specific year of CDL (2012-2021). Spatial Products for Agriculture and Nature ('SPAN') land cover in the conterminous United States from 2012-2021. This raster dataset is available in GeoTIFF format and was created by joining agricultural classes from the USDA-NASS Cropland Data Layer (CDL) to national vegetation from the LANDFIRE National Vegetation Classification v2.0 ('Remap'). Pixels of national vegetation are the same in all rasters provided here and represent land cover in 2016. Agricultural pixels were taken from the CDL in the specified year, so depict agricultural land from 2012-2021. Resource Title: Rasters of pixels mismatched between CDL and NVC: 2012-2021 - SCINet File Name: MismatchedNational.zip Resource Description: GeoTIFF rasters showing location of pixels that are mismatched between 2016 NVC and specific year of CDL (2012-2021). This dataset includes pixels that were classified as agriculture in the NVC but, in the CDL, were not agriculture (or were a conflicting agricultural class). For more details, we refer users to the linked publication describing our geospatial processing and validation workflow.SCINet users: The files can be accessed/retrieved with valid SCINet account at this location: /LTS/ADCdatastorage/NAL/published/node455886/ See the SCINet File Transfer guide for more information on moving large files: https://scinet.usda.gov/guides/data/datatransferGlobus users: The files can also be accessed through Globus by following this data link. The user will need to log in to Globus in order to retrieve this data. User accounts are free of charge with several options for signing on. Instructions for creating an account are on the login page.