The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in association with the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium, produces the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) for the United States. The MRLC, a consortium of federal agencies who coordinate and generate consistent and relevant land cover information at the national scale for a wide variety of environmental, land management, and modeling applications, have been providing the scientific community with detailed land cover products for more than 30 years. Over that time, NLCD has been one of the most widely used geospatial datasets in the U.S., serving as a basis for understanding the Nation’s landscapes in thousands of studies and applications, trusted by scientists, land managers, students, city planners, and many more as a definitive source of U.S. land cover. NLCD land cover suite is created through the classification of Landsat imagery and uses partner data from the MRLC Consortium to help refine many of the land cover classes. The classification system used by NLCD is modified from the Anderson Land Cover Classification System. The NLCD Class Legend and Description is maintained at https://www.mrlc.gov/data/legends/national-land-cover-database-class-legend-and-description. The land cover theme includes two separate products. The first is a standard land cover product suite that provides 16 land cover classes for the conterminous United States and Alaska only land cover types and is available at https://www.mrlc.gov/data. The second product suite, NLCD Land Cover Science Products, provides additional discrimination and land cover classes differentiating grass and shrub and regenerating forest regime from grass and shrub and rangeland setting and is available at https://www.mrlc.gov/nlcd-2021-science-research-products. The latest release of NLCD land cover spans the timeframe from 2001 to 2021 in 2 to 3-year intervals. These new products use a streamlined compositing process for assembling and preprocessing Landsat imagery and geospatial ancillary datasets; a temporally, spectrally, and spatially integrated land cover change analysis strategy; a theme-based post-classification protocol for generating land cover and change products; a continuous fields biophysical parameters modeling method; and a scripted operational system.
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National Land Cover Database 2011 (NLCD 2011) is the most recent national land cover product created by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. NLCD 2011 provides - for the first time - the capability to assess wall-to-wall, spatially explicit, national land cover changes and trends across the United States from 2001 to 2011. As with two previous NLCD land cover products NLCD 2011 keeps the same 16-class land cover classification scheme that has been applied consistently across the United States at a spatial resolution of 30 meters. NLCD 2011 is based primarily on a decision-tree classification of circa 2011 Landsat satellite data. [Note: The scheduled release date for NLCD 2016 products is Friday, December 28, 2018] Resources in this dataset:Resource Title: Website Pointer to National Land Cover Database 2011 (NLCD 2011). File Name: Web Page, url: https://www.mrlc.gov/nlcd2011.php Includes product description, data downloads (Conterminous United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico), production statistics, and related references.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in association with the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium, produces the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) for the United States. The MRLC, a consortium of federal agencies who coordinate and generate consistent and relevant land cover information at the national scale for a wide variety of environmental, land management, and modeling applications, have been providing the scientific community with detailed land cover products for more than 30 years. Over that time, NLCD has been one of the most widely used geospatial datasets in the U.S., serving as a basis for understanding the Nation’s landscapes in thousands of studies and applications, trusted by scientists, land managers, students, city planners, and many more as a definitive source of U.S. land cover. NLCD land cover suite is created through the classification of Landsat imagery and uses partner data from the MRLC Consortium to help refine many of the land cover classes. The classification system used by NLCD is modified from the Anderson Land Cover Classification System. The NLCD Class Legend and Description is maintained at https://www.mrlc.gov/data/legends/national-land-cover-database-class-legend-and-description. The land cover theme includes two separate products. The first is a standard land cover product suite that provides 16 land cover classes for the conterminous United States and Alaska only land cover types and is available at https://www.mrlc.gov/data. The second product suite, NLCD Land Cover Science Products, provides additional discrimination and land cover classes differentiating grass and shrub and regenerating forest regime from grass and shrub and rangeland setting and is available at https://www.mrlc.gov/nlcd-2021-science-research-products. The latest release of NLCD land cover spans the timeframe from 2001 to 2021 in 2 to 3-year intervals. These new products use a streamlined compositing process for assembling and preprocessing Landsat imagery and geospatial ancillary datasets; a temporally, spectrally, and spatially integrated land cover change analysis strategy; a theme-based post-classification protocol for generating land cover and change products; a continuous fields biophysical parameters modeling method; and a scripted operational system. Unmasked Impervious - To produce the unmasked impervious layer a multilayered perceptron neural network (MLP) was deployed across CONUS. The MLP was trained to perform the regression task of predicting the 1-100 impervious fractional cover. To sample data to train the network, we broke CONUS into a grid comprised of 256x256 pixel regions of interest (ROIs) and sampled from that grid all ROIs with at least 40% impervious cover according to NLCD 2019 impervious fractional cover, which gave us samples from large impervious areas. From those ROIs, we then sampled 66 million training and 16 million validation data points with an even distribution across each impervious intensity (1-100). Those training points were then randomly split into 4 subsets, each corresponding to one of the following respective years: 2011, 2013, 2016, 2019. We used those points to query surface reflectance values from leaf-on composite and leaf-off synthetic imagery (see metadata for NLCD 2021 land cover), elevation data, and spatial urban intensity probabilities. The spatial urban intensity probabilities were generated by an ensemble of U-net models that were trained to predict the 4 urban intensity classes as defined by the NLCD product legend (open space, low intensity, medium intensity, high intensity). Two U-net models were trained using all ROIs in the CONUS 256x256 pixel grid. Inputs to these models included leaf-on composite and leaf-off synthetic imagery, and elevation data. To create the final training and validation datasets we randomly split the CONUS grid into to 2 equal sets: A and B. Using the ROIs from set A we queried the input features from the years 2011 and 2016 and from the ROIs in set B we queried input features from the years 2013 and 2019. These U-net models do not act as the final impervious predictors but instead as spatial feature generators. The spatial features learned by these convolutional neural networks were then fed into the pixel-based MLP, as spatial probabilities of urban intensity, to boost its predicting power. The U-nets were trained using categorical focal Jaccard loss and monitored with the Jaccard Index metric (IOU). The impervious fractional cover regression model (MLP) was trained using mean squared error as a loss function and monitored with mean absolute error as the metric. Initial impervious footprint - To generate an initial impervious footprint, three U-net models were trained on the multiclass-classification task of predicting “urban” and “roads”. The model was trained with 120,000 training and 40,000 validation 256X256 pixel Landsat image chips covering the entire extent of CONUS. The model inputs are consistent with what was used to generate the urban intensity U-net models; the only difference was the target mask the models were trained to predict. These models mapped all NLCD impervious footprint pixels to two classes (“urban” and “roads”); this was used to generate the impervious extent. Impervious Change Pixels - The initial 2021 impervious change pixels were created by comparing the 2021 urban footprint with the 2019 published urban descriptor and extracting the difference. These change pixels were manually edited for omission and commission errors. Ancillary data were then added to the change pixels to create the final 2021 impervious change pixels. These ancillary data consisted of solar installations, wind turbines, and roads. The solar installations dataset is an edited version of the Solar Photovoltaic Generating Units dataset produced by Kruitwagen et al (2021) (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5005867). The U.S. Wind Turbine Database from Hoen et al (2021) (https://doi.org/10.5066/F7TX3DN0) was used without edits. NavStreets road datasets were used in previous versions of NLCD but an updated version was not available to the USGS. New subdivision roads from the 2021 urban footprint and a small number of manually drawn roads were added to the 2021 impervious change pixels. 2021 impervious extent - The final impervious change pixels were added to that 2019 impervious descriptor file to create the new 2021 impervious descriptor file. This file maps the extent of all impervious for the 2021 NLCD. 2021 impervious product - The percent imperviousness values (1-100%) for the impervious change pixels were extracted from the unmasked impervious layer. Values for previously published urban remained the same except for areas that were 40% or more greater in value, in the unmasked impervious layer. 2021 impervious descriptor - The final impervious change pixels were mapped to the class legend for the NLCD 2019 published impervious descriptor. These pixels were then added to the NLCD 2019 impervious descriptor file to create the new 2021 impervious descriptor file.
The USDA Forest Service (USFS) builds two versions of percent tree canopy cover data, in order to serve needs of multiple user communities. These datasets encompass conterminous United States (CONUS), Coastal Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands (PRUSVI). The two versions of data within the v2021-4 TCC product suite include: The initial model outputs referred to as the Science data; And a modified version built for the National Land Cover Database and referred to as NLCD data. The NLCD product suite includes data for years 2011 through 2021. The NCLD data are processed to remove small interannual changes from the annual TCC timeseries, and to mask TCC pixels that are known to be 0 percent TCC, non-tree agriculture, and water. A small interannual change is defined as a TCC change less than an increase or decrease of 10 percent compared to a TCC baseline value. The initial TCC baseline value is the median of 2008-2010 TCC data. For each year following 2011, on a pixel-wise basis TCC values are updated to a new baseline value if an increase or decrease of 10 percent TCC occurs relative to the 2008-2010 TCC baseline value. If no increase or decrease greater than 10 percent TCC occurs relative to the 2008-2010 baseline, then the 2008-2010 TCC baseline value is caried through to the next year in the timeseries. Pixel values range from 0 to 100 percent. The non-processing area is represented by value 254, and the background is represented by the value 255. The Science and NLCD tree canopy cover data are accessible for multiple user communities, through multiple channels and platforms. For information on the Science data and processing steps see the Science metadata. Information on the NLCD data and processing steps are included here. Data Download and Methods Documents: - https://data.fs.usda.gov/geodata/rastergateway/treecanopycover/
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The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in partnership with several federal agencies, has now developed and released seven National Land Cover Database (NLCD) products: NLCD 1992, 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016, 2019, and 2021. Beginning with the 2016 release, land cover products were created for two-to-three-year intervals between 2001 and the most recent year. These products provide spatially explicit and reliable information on the Nation’s land cover and land cover change. NLCD continues to provide innovative, consistent, and robust methodologies for production of a multi-temporal land cover and land cover change database. NLCD 2021 adds an additional year to the map products produced for NLCD 2019, with a streamlined compositing process for assembling and preprocessing Landsat imagery and geospatial ancillary datasets; a temporally, spectrally, and spatially integrated land cover change analysis strategy; a theme-based post-classification protocol for generating land cover and change products; a continuous fields biophysical parameters modeling method; and a scripted operational system. The overall accuracy of the 2019 Level I land cover was 91%. Results from this study confirm the robustness of this comprehensive and highly automated procedure for NLCD 2021 operational mapping (see https://doi.org/10.1080/15481603.2023.2181143 for the latest accuracy assessment publication). Questions about the NLCD 2021 land cover product can be directed to the NLCD 2021 land cover mapping team at USGS EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov. See included spatial metadata for more details.
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Download linkSizeType2019 NLCD2.28 GBapplication/zipThe U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in partnership with several federal agencies, has developed and released five National Land Cover Database (NLCD) products over the past two decades: NLCD 1992, 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016. The 2016 release saw land cover created for additional years of 2003, 2008, and 2013. These products provide spatially explicit and reliable information on the Nation’s land cover and land cover change. To continue the legacy of NLCD and further establish a long-term monitoring capability for the Nation’s land resources, the USGS has designed a new generation of NLCD products named NLCD 2019.The NLCD 2019 design aims to provide innovative, consistent, and robust methodologies for production of a multi-temporal land cover and land cover change database from 2001 to 2019 at 2–3-year intervals. Comprehensive research was conducted and resulted in developed strategies for NLCD 2019: continued integration between impervious surface and all landcover products with impervious surface being directly mapped as developed classes in the landcover, a streamlined compositing process for assembling and preprocessing based on Landsat imagery and geospatial ancillary datasets; a multi-source integrated training data development and decision-tree based land cover classifications; a temporally, spectrally, and spatially integrated land cover change analysis strategy; a hierarchical theme-based post-classification and integration protocol for generating land cover and change products; a continuous fields biophysical parameters modeling method; and an automated scripted operational system for the NLCD 2019 production. The performance of the developed strategies and methods were tested in twenty composite referenced areas throughout the conterminous U.S. An overall accuracy assessment from the 2016 publication give a 91% overall landcover accuracy, with the developed classes also showing a 91% accuracy in overall developed. Results from this study confirm the robustness of this comprehensive and highly automated procedure for NLCD 2019 operational mapping. Questions about the NLCD 2019 land cover product can be directed to the NLCD 2019 land cover mapping team at USGS EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov. See included spatial metadata for more details.National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2019 Impervious ProductsNational Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2019 Land Cover Products
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The USDA Forest Service (USFS) builds multiple versions of percent tree canopy cover data, in order to serve needs of multiple user communities. These datasets encompass CONUS, Coastal Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. There are three versions of data within the 2016 TCC Product Suite, which include: The initial model outputs referred to as the Analytical data; A masked version of the initial output referred to as Cartographic data; And a modified version built for the National Land Cover Database and referred to as NLCD data, which includes a canopy cover change dataset derived from subtraction of datasets for the nominal years of 2011 and 2016. The Analytical data are the initial model outputs generated in the production workflow. These data are best suited for users who will carry out their own detailed statistical and uncertainty analyses on the dataset and place lower priority on the visual appearance of the dataset for cartographic purposes. Datasets for the nominal years of 2011 and 2016 are available.
The Cartographic products mask the initial model outputs to improve the visual appearance of the datasets. These data are best suited for users who prioritize visual appearance of the data for cartographic and illustrative purposes. Datasets for the nominal years of 2011 and 2016 are available.
The NLCD data are the result of further processing of the masked data. The goal was to generate three coordinated components. The components are (1) a dataset for the nominal year of 2011, (2) a dataset for the nominal year of 2016, and (3) a dataset that captures the change in canopy cover between the two nominal years of 2011 and 2016. For the NLCD data, the three components meet the criterion of 2011 TCC + change in TCC = 2016 TCC. These NLCD data are best suited for users who require a coordinated three-component data stack where each pixels values meet the criterion of 2011 TCC + change in TCC = 2016 TCC. Datasets for the nominal years of 2011 and 2016 are available, as well as a dataset that captures the change (loss or gain) in canopy cover between those two nominal years of 2011 and 2016, in areas where change was identified.
These tree canopy cover data are accessible for multiple user communities, through multiple channels and platforms, as listed below: Analytical USFS Tree Canopy Cover Datasets (Download) USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse (Image Service) Cartographic USFS Tree Canopy Cover Datasets (Download) USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse (Map Service) NLCD Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium (Download) USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse (Image Service) The Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands TCC NLCD change dataset is comprised of a single layer. The pixel values range from -97 to 98 percent where negative values represent canopy loss and positive values represent canopy gain. The background is represented by the value 127 and data gaps are represented by the value 110 since this is a signed 8-bit image.This record was taken from the USDA Enterprise Data Inventory that feeds into the https://data.gov catalog. Data for this record includes the following resources: ISO-19139 metadata ArcGIS Hub Dataset ArcGIS GeoService For complete information, please visit https://data.gov.
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The National Land Cover Database 2011 (NLCD2011) USFS percent tree canopy product was produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium (www.mrlc.gov). The MRLC Consortium is a partnership of federal agencies, consisting of the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, NASA, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. One of the primary goals of the project was to generate current, consistent, and seamless national land cover, percent tree canopy, and percent impervious cover at medium spatial resolution. This product is the cartographic version of the NLCD2011 percent tree canopy cover dataset for CONUS at medium spatial resolution (30 m). It was pro ...
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in partnership with several federal agencies, has developed and released five National Land Cover Database (NLCD) products over the past two decades: NLCD 1992, 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016. The 2016 release saw landcover created for additional years of 2003, 2008, and 2013. These products provide spatially explicit and reliable information on the Nation’s land cover and land cover change. To continue the legacy of NLCD and further establish a long-term monitoring capability for the Nation’s land resources, the USGS has designed a new generation of NLCD products named NLCD 2019. The NLCD 2019 design aims to provide innovative, consistent, and robust methodologies for production of a multi-temporal land cover and land cover change database from 2001 to 2019 at 2–3-year intervals. Comprehensive research was conducted and resulted in developed strategies for NLCD 2019: continued integration between impervious surface and all landcover products with impervious surface being directly mapped as developed classes in the landcover, a streamlined compositing process for assembling and preprocessing based on Landsat imagery and geospatial ancillary datasets; a multi-source integrated training data development and decision-tree based land cover classifications; a temporally, spectrally, and spatially integrated land cover change analysis strategy; a hierarchical theme-based post-classification and integration protocol for generating land cover and change products; a continuous fields biophysical parameters modeling method; and an automated scripted operational system for the NLCD 2019 production. The performance of the developed strategies and methods were tested in twenty composite referenced areas throughout the conterminous U.S. An overall accuracy assessment from the 2016 publication give a 91% overall landcover accuracy, with the developed classes also showing a 91% accuracy in overall developed. Results from this study confirm the robustness of this comprehensive and highly automated procedure for NLCD 2019 operational mapping. Questions about the NLCD 2019 land cover product can be directed to the NLCD 2019 land cover mapping team at USGS EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov. See included spatial metadata for more details.
The National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 1992 Land Cover layer was produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. The MRLC Consortium is a partnership of federal agencies (www.mrlc.gov), consisting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture - Forest Service (USDA-FS), the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). One of the primary goals of the project is to generate a current, consistent, seamless, and accurate land cover data for the United States at medium spatial resolution. Questions about the NLCD can be directed to the NLCD land cover mapping team at USGS EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605)594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov.
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Preservation of NLCD Fractional Impervious Surface. From https://www.mrlc.gov/data/type/fractional-impervious-surface:The Annual National Land Cover Database (NLCD) impervious surface product provides the fractional or percent surface area of a 30-meter map pixel that is covered with processed materials or structures (pavement, concrete, rooftops, and other constructed materials) that generate surface runoff. The majority of these materials are impervious to water, but many features that are not impervious like lawns and channelized ditches also contribute to surface runoff and water impairment.The amount of impervious surface is generally less than suggested by the footprint of developed land cover because these classes often include permeable but developed vegetation, such as lawn grasses, that may be the majority surface cover. The impervious surface product provides a value for every land cover pixel mapped as developed and determines which intensity category the pixel will be placed into based on thresholds described in the primary land cover class legend in the Science Product User Guide. The value ranges from 0-100% area.This snapshot is from 2024. https://www.mrlc.gov/downloads/sciweb1/shared/mrlc/data-bundles/Annual_NLCD_FctImp_2024_CU_C1V1.zip
Find and download NLCD data as prepackaged data types and years. You can also interactively view and choose your own download geography and data in a viewer.
As part of the next generation NLCD 2016 mapping process, the NLCD research team developed a suite of intermediate products that were used to generate the final NLCD Land Cover products. Some of those products also have value as independent products and are provided here. Please read the product descriptions to understand what the product represents. Questions about the NLCD 2016 land cover product can be directed to the NLCD 2016 land cover mapping team at USGS EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov. See included spatial metadata for more details.
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The USDA Forest Service (USFS) builds multiple versions of percent tree canopy cover data, in order to serve needs of multiple user communities. These datasets encompass CONUS, Coastal Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. There are three versions of data within the 2016 TCC Product Suite, which include: The initial model outputs referred to as the Analytical data; A masked version of the initial output referred to as Cartographic data; And a modified version built for the National Land Cover Database and referred to as NLCD data, which includes a canopy cover change dataset derived from subtraction of datasets for the nominal years of 2011 and 2016. The Analytical data are the initial model outputs generated in the production workflow. These data are best suited for users who will carry out their own detailed statistical and uncertainty analyses on the dataset and place lower priority on the visual appearance of the dataset for cartographic purposes. Datasets for the nominal years of 2011 and 2016 are available.
The Cartographic products mask the initial model outputs to improve the visual appearance of the datasets. These data are best suited for users who prioritize visual appearance of the data for cartographic and illustrative purposes. Datasets for the nominal years of 2011 and 2016 are available.
The NLCD data are the result of further processing of the masked data. The goal was to generate three coordinated components. The components are (1) a dataset for the nominal year of 2011, (2) a dataset for the nominal year of 2016, and (3) a dataset that captures the change in canopy cover between the two nominal years of 2011 and 2016. For the NLCD data, the three components meet the criterion of 2011 TCC + change in TCC = 2016 TCC. These NLCD data are best suited for users who require a coordinated three-component data stack where each pixels values meet the criterion of 2011 TCC + change in TCC = 2016 TCC. Datasets for the nominal years of 2011 and 2016 are available, as well as a dataset that captures the change (loss or gain) in canopy cover between those two nominal years of 2011 and 2016, in areas where change was identified.
These tree canopy cover data are accessible for multiple user communities, through multiple channels and platforms, as listed below: Analytical USFS Tree Canopy Cover Datasets (Download) USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse (Image Service) Cartographic USFS Tree Canopy Cover Datasets (Download) USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse (Map Service) NLCD Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium (Download) USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse (Image Service) The Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands TCC NLCD change dataset is comprised of a single layer. The pixel values range from -97 to 98 percent where negative values represent canopy loss and positive values represent canopy gain. The background is represented by the value 127 and data gaps are represented by the value 110 since this is a signed 8-bit image.This record was taken from the USDA Enterprise Data Inventory that feeds into the https://data.gov catalog. Data for this record includes the following resources: ISO-19139 metadata ArcGIS Hub Dataset ArcGIS GeoService For complete information, please visit https://data.gov.
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The USDA Forest Service (USFS) builds two versions of percent tree canopy cover data, in order to serve needs of multiple user communities. These datasets encompass conterminous United States (CONUS), Coastal Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands (PRUSVI). The two versions of data within the v2021-4 TCC product suite include: The initial model outputs referred to as the Science data; And a modified version built for the National Land Cover Database and referred to as NLCD data. The Science data are the initial annual model outputs that consist of two images: percent tree canopy cover (TCC) and standard error. These data are best suited for users who will carry out their own detailed statistical and uncertainty analyses on the dataset, and place lower priority on the visual appearance of the dataset for cartographic purposes. Datasets for the years 2008 through 2021 are available. The Science data were produced using a random forests regression algorithm. For standard error data, the initial standard error estimates that ranged from 0 to approximately 45 were multiplied by 100 to maintain data precision (e.g., 45 = 4500). Therefore, standard error estimates pixel values range from 0 to approximately 4500. The value 65534 represents the non-processing area mask where no cloud or cloud shadow-free data are available to produce an output, and 65535 represents the background value. The Science data are accessible for multiple user communities, through multiple channels and platforms. For information on the NLCD TCC data and processing steps see the NLCD metadata. Information on the Science data and processing steps are included here. Data Download and Methods Documents: - https://data.fs.usda.gov/geodata/rastergateway/treecanopycover/
The USGS Land Cover service from The National Map (TNM) consists of NLCD 1992, 2001, 2006, and 2011, which are National Land Cover Database (NLCD) classification schemes based primarily on Landsat satellite data along with ancillary data sources, such as topography, census and agricultural statistics, soil characteristics, wetlands, and other land cover maps. NLCD 1992 is a 21-class land cover classification scheme that has been applied consistently across the conterminous U.S. at a spatial resolution of 30 meters. NLCD 2001 is a 16-class land cover classification scheme that also has been applied to the conterminous U.S. at a spatial resolution of 30 meters, and includes Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. NLCD 2006 quantified land cover change for the conterminous U.S. between the years 2001 to 2006. Generation of NLCD 2006 helped identify and correct issues in the 2001 land cover and impervious surface products only, and no changes were made to the 2001 canopy product. NLCD 2011 is the most recent national land cover product based primarily on a decision-tree classification of 2011 Landsat satellite data. The National Map viewer allows free downloads of public domain, 30-meter resolution land cover data by 3x3 degree tiles in GeoTIFF format for the United States and Puerto Rico. For additional information on land cover products, go to http://www.mrlc.gov.
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The USDA Forest Service (USFS) builds multiple versions of percent tree canopy cover data, in order to serve needs of multiple user communities. These datasets encompass CONUS, Coastal Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. There are three versions of data within the 2016 TCC Product Suite, which include: The initial model outputs referred to as the Analytical data; A masked version of the initial output referred to as Cartographic data; And a modified version built for the National Land Cover Database and referred to as NLCD data, which includes a canopy cover change dataset derived from subtraction of datasets for the nominal years of 2011 and 2016. The Analytical data are the initial model outputs generated in the production workflow. These data are best suited for users who will carry out their own detailed statistical and uncertainty analyses on the dataset and place lower priority on the visual appearance of the dataset for cartographic purposes. Datasets for the nominal years of 2011 and 2016 are available.
The Cartographic products mask the initial model outputs to improve the visual appearance of the datasets. These data are best suited for users who prioritize visual appearance of the data for cartographic and illustrative purposes. Datasets for the nominal years of 2011 and 2016 are available.
The NLCD data are the result of further processing of the masked data. The goal was to generate three coordinated components. The components are (1) a dataset for the nominal year of 2011, (2) a dataset for the nominal year of 2016, and (3) a dataset that captures the change in canopy cover between the two nominal years of 2011 and 2016. For the NLCD data, the three components meet the criterion of 2011 TCC + change in TCC = 2016 TCC. These NLCD data are best suited for users who require a coordinated three-component data stack where each pixels values meet the criterion of 2011 TCC + change in TCC = 2016 TCC. Datasets for the nominal years of 2011 and 2016 are available, as well as a dataset that captures the change (loss or gain) in canopy cover between those two nominal years of 2011 and 2016, in areas where change was identified.
These tree canopy cover data are accessible for multiple user communities, through multiple channels and platforms, as listed below: Analytical USFS Tree Canopy Cover Datasets (Download) USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse (Image Service) Cartographic USFS Tree Canopy Cover Datasets (Download) USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse (Map Service) NLCD Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium (Download) USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse (Image Service) The Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands TCC NLCD change dataset is comprised of a single layer. The pixel values range from -97 to 98 percent where negative values represent canopy loss and positive values represent canopy gain. The background is represented by the value 127 and data gaps are represented by the value 110 since this is a signed 8-bit image.This record was taken from the USDA Enterprise Data Inventory that feeds into the https://data.gov catalog. Data for this record includes the following resources: ISO-19139 metadata ArcGIS Hub Dataset ArcGIS GeoService For complete information, please visit https://data.gov.
The USGS Land Cover program has combined the tried-and-true methodologies from premier land cover projects, National Land Cover Database (NLCD) and Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection (LCMAP), together with modern innovations in geospatial deep learning technologies to create the next generation of land cover and land change information. The product suite is called, “Annual NLCD” and includes six annual products that represent land cover and surface change characteristics of the U.S.: 1) Land Cover, 2) Land Cover Change, 3) Land Cover Confidence, 4) Fractional Impervious Surface, 5) Impervious Descriptor, and 6) Spectral Change Day of Year. These land cover science product algorithms harness the remotely sensed Landsat data record to provide state-of-the-art land surface change information needed by scientists, resource managers, and decision-makers. Annual NLCD uses a modernized, integrated approach to map, monitor, synthesize, and understand the complexities of land use, cover, and condition change. With this first release, Annual NLCD, Collection 1.0, the six products are available for the Conterminous U.S. for 1985 – 2023. Questions about the Annual NLCD product suite can be directed to the Annual NLCD mapping team at USGS EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or custserv@usgs.gov. See included spatial metadata for more details.
National Land Cover Database 2001 (NLCD2001) is a 16-class (additional four classes in Alaska only) land cover classification scheme that has been applied consistently across all 50 United States and Puerto Rico at a spatial resolution of 30 meters. NLCD2001 is based primarily on the unsupervised classification of Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper+ (ETM+) circa 2001 satellite data. NLCD2001 improves on NLCD92 in that it is comprised of three different elements: land cover, percent developed impervious surface and percent tree canopy density. NLCD2001 also uses improved classification algorithms, which have resulted in data with more precise rending of spatial boundaries between the land cover classes.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in association with the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium, produces the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) for the United States. The MRLC, a consortium of federal agencies who coordinate and generate consistent and relevant land cover information at the national scale for a wide variety of environmental, land management, and modeling applications, have been providing the scientific community with detailed land cover products for more than 30 years. Over that time, NLCD has been one of the most widely used geospatial datasets in the U.S., serving as a basis for understanding the Nation’s landscapes in thousands of studies and applications, trusted by scientists, land managers, students, city planners, and many more as a definitive source of U.S. land cover. NLCD land cover suite is created through the classification of Landsat imagery and uses partner data from the MRLC Consortium to help refine many of the land cover classes. The classification system used by NLCD is modified from the Anderson Land Cover Classification System. The NLCD Class Legend and Description is maintained at https://www.mrlc.gov/data/legends/national-land-cover-database-class-legend-and-description. The land cover theme includes two separate products. The first is a standard land cover product suite that provides 16 land cover classes for the conterminous United States and Alaska only land cover types and is available at https://www.mrlc.gov/data. The second product suite, NLCD Land Cover Science Products, provides additional discrimination and land cover classes differentiating grass and shrub and regenerating forest regime from grass and shrub and rangeland setting and is available at https://www.mrlc.gov/nlcd-2021-science-research-products. The latest release of NLCD land cover spans the timeframe from 2001 to 2021 in 2 to 3-year intervals. These new products use a streamlined compositing process for assembling and preprocessing Landsat imagery and geospatial ancillary datasets; a temporally, spectrally, and spatially integrated land cover change analysis strategy; a theme-based post-classification protocol for generating land cover and change products; a continuous fields biophysical parameters modeling method; and a scripted operational system.