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 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 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.

This is a dataset download, not a document. The Open button will start the download.This data layer is an element of the Oregon GIS Framework and has been clipped to the Oregon boundary and reprojected to Oregon Lambert (2992). The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in partnership with several federal agencies, has developed and released four National Land Cover Database (NLCD) products over the past two decades: NLCD 1992, 2001, 2006, and 2011. 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 2016. The NLCD 2016 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 2016 at 2–3-year intervals. Comprehensive research was conducted and resulted in developed strategies for NLCD 2016: a streamlined process for assembling and preprocessing 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 2016 production. The performance of the developed strategies and methods were tested in twenty World Reference System-2 path/row throughout the conterminous U.S. An overall agreement ranging from 71% to 97% between land cover classification and reference data was achieved for all tested area and all years. Results from this study confirm the robustness of this comprehensive and highly automated procedure for NLCD 2016 operational mapping. 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.

The National Land Cover Database products are created 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 (USDA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), 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). Previously, NLCD consisted of three major data releases based on a 10-year cycle. These include a circa 1992 conterminous U.S. land cover dataset with one thematic layer (NLCD 1992), a circa 2001 50-state/Puerto Rico updated U.S. land cover database (NLCD 2001) with three layers including thematic land cover, percent imperviousness, and percent tree canopy, and a 1992/2001 Land Cover Change Retrofit Product. With these national data layers, there is often a 5-year time lag between the image capture date and product release. In some areas, the land cover can undergo significant change during production time, resulting in products that may be perpetually out of date. To address these issues, this circa 2006 NLCD land cover product (NLCD 2006) was conceived to meet user community needs for more frequent land cover monitoring (moving to a 5-year cycle) and to reduce the production time between image capture and product release. NLCD 2006 is designed to provide the user both updated land cover data and additional information that can be used to identify the pattern, nature, and magnitude of changes occurring between 2001 and 2006 for the conterminous United States at medium spatial resolution. For NLCD 2006, there are 3 primary data products: 1) NLCD 2006 Land Cover map; 2) NLCD 2001/2006 Change Pixels labeled with the 2006 land cover class; and 3) NLCD 2006 Percent Developed Imperviousness. Four additional data products were developed to provide supporting documentation and to provide information for land cover change analysis tasks: 4) NLCD 2001/2006 Percent Developed Imperviousness Change; 5) NLCD 2001/2006 Maximum Potential Change derived from the raw spectral change analysis; 6) NLCD 2001/2006 From-To Change pixels; and 7) NLCD 2006 Path/Row Index vector file showing the footprint of Landsat scene pairs used to derive 2001/2006 spectral change with change pair acquisition dates and scene identification numbers included in the attribute table. In addition to the 2006 data products listed in the paragraph above, two of the original release NLCD 2001 data products have been revised and reissued. Generation of NLCD 2006 data products helped to identify some update issues in the NLCD 2001 land cover and percent developed imperviousness data products. These issues were evaluated and corrected, necessitating a reissue of NLCD 2001 data products (NLCD 2001 Version 2.0) as part of the NLCD 2006 release. A majority of NLCD 2001 updates occur in coastal mapping zones where NLCD 2001 was published prior to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP) 2001 land cover products. NOAA C-CAP 2001 land cover has now been seamlessly integrated with NLCD 2001 land cover for all coastal zones. NLCD 2001 percent developed imperviousness was also updated as part of this process. Land cover maps, derivatives and all associated documents are considered "provisional" until a formal accuracy assessment can be conducted. The NLCD 2006 is created on a path/row basis and mosaicked to create a seamless national product. Questions about the NLCD 2006 land cover product can be directed to the NLCD 2006 land cover mapping team at the USGS/EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.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 Land Cover Products” and includes four 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, and 4) 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. The Land Cover products are available at https://www.mrlc.gov/data. Legend and Description information is maintained at https://www.mrlc.gov/data/legends/national-land-cover-database-class-legend-and-description.

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 produced by the USDA Forest Service Remote Sensing Applications Center (RSAC). Tree canopy values range from 0 to 100 percent. The analytic tree canopy layer was produced using a Random Forests™ regression algorithm. The cartographic product is a filtered version of the regression algorithm output.

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 …

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.

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 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.

Land cover describes the surface of the earth. This time-enabled service of the National Land Cover Database groups land cover into 20 classes based on a modified Anderson Level II classification system. Classes include vegetation type, development density, and agricultural use. Areas of water, ice and snow and barren lands are also identified. This layer displays land cover for the years 2001, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2016, and 2019 for the conterminous United States. The layer displays land cover for Alaska for the years 2001, 2011, and 2016. For Puerto Rico there is only data for 2001. For Hawaii, Esri reclassed land cover data from NOAA Office for Coastal Management, C-CAP into NLCD codes. These reclassed C-CAP data were available for Hawaii for the years 2001, 2005, and 2011. Hawaii C-CAP land cover in its original form can be used in your maps by adding the Hawaii CCAP Land Cover layer directly from the Living Atlas.The National Land Cover Database products are created through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium (MRLC). 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, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.Time SeriesThis layer is served as a time series. To display a particular year of land cover data, select the year of interest with the time slider in your map client. You may also use the time slider to play the service as an animation. We recommend a one year time interval when displaying the series. If you would like a particular year of data to use in analysis, be sure to use the analysis renderer along with the time slider to choose a valid year.North America Albers ProjectionThis layer is served in North America albers projection. Albers is an equal area projection, and this allows users of this service to accurately calculate acreage without additional data preparation steps. This also means it takes a tiny bit longer to project on the fly into web mercator, if that is the destination projection of the service.Processing TemplatesCartographic Renderer - The default. Land cover drawn with Esri symbols. Each year's land cover data is displayed in the time series until there is a newer year of data available.Cartographic Renderer (saturated) - This renderer has the same symbols as the cartographic renderer, but the colors are extra saturated so a transparency may be applied to the layer. This renderer is useful for land cover over a basemap or relief. MRLC Cartographic Renderer - Cartographic renderer using the land cover symbols as issued by NLCD (the same symbols as is on the dataset when you download them from MRLC).Analytic Renderer - Use this in analysis. The time series is restricted by the analytic template to display a raster in only the year the land cover raster is valid. In a cartographic renderer, land cover data is displayed until a new year of data is available so that it plays well in a time series. In the analytic renderer, data is displayed for only the year it is valid. The analytic renderer won't look good in a time series animation, but in analysis this renderer will make sure you only use data for its appropriate year.Simplified Renderer - NLCD reclassified into 10 broad classes. These broad classes may be easier to use in some applications or maps.Forest Renderer - Cartographic renderer which only displays the three forest classes, deciduous, coniferous, and mixed forest.Developed Renderer - Cartographic renderer which only displays the four developed classes, developed open space plus low, medium, and high intensity development classes.Hawaii data has a different sourceMRLC redirects users interested in land cover data for Hawaii to a NOAA product called C-CAP or Coastal Change Analysis Program Regional Land Cover. This C-CAP land cover data was available for Hawaii for the years 2001, 2005, and 2011 at the time of the latest update of this layer. The USA NLCD Land Cover layer reclasses C-CAP land cover codes into NLCD land cover codes for display and analysis, although it may be beneficial for analytical purposes to use the original C-CAP data, which has finer resolution and untranslated land cover codes. The C-CAP land cover data for Hawaii is served as its own 2.4m resolution land cover layer in the Living Atlas.Because it's a different original data source than the rest of NLCD, different years for Hawaii may not be able to be compared in the same way different years for the other states can. But the same method was used to produce each year of this C-CAP derived land cover to make this layer. Note: Because there was no C-CAP data for Kaho'olawe Island in 2011, 2005 data were used for that island.The land cover is projected into the same projection and cellsize as the rest of the layer, using nearest neighbor method, then it is reclassed to approximate the NLCD codes. The following is the reclass table used to make Hawaii C-CAP data closely match the NLCD classification scheme:C-CAP code,NLCD code0,01,02,243,234,225,216,827,818,719,4110,4211,4312,5213,9014,9015,9516,9017,9018,9519,3120,3121,1122,1123,1124,025,12USA NLCD Land Cover service classes with corresponding index number (raster value):11. Open Water - areas of open water, generally with less than 25% cover of vegetation or soil.12. Perennial Ice/Snow - areas characterized by a perennial cover of ice and/or snow, generally greater than 25% of total cover.21. Developed, Open Space - areas with a mixture of some constructed materials, but mostly vegetation in the form of lawn grasses. Impervious surfaces account for less than 20% of total cover. These areas most commonly include large-lot single-family housing units, parks, golf courses, and vegetation planted in developed settings for recreation, erosion control, or aesthetic purposes.22. Developed, Low Intensity - areas with a mixture of constructed materials and vegetation. Impervious surfaces account for 20% to 49% percent of total cover. These areas most commonly include single-family housing units.23. Developed, Medium Intensity - areas with a mixture of constructed materials and vegetation. Impervious surfaces account for 50% to 79% of the total cover. These areas most commonly include single-family housing units.24. Developed High Intensity - highly developed areas where people reside or work in high numbers. Examples include apartment complexes, row houses and commercial/industrial. Impervious surfaces account for 80% to 100% of the total cover.31. Barren Land (Rock/Sand/Clay) - areas of bedrock, desert pavement, scarps, talus, slides, volcanic material, glacial debris, sand dunes, strip mines, gravel pits and other accumulations of earthen material. Generally, vegetation accounts for less than 15% of total cover.41. Deciduous Forest - areas dominated by trees generally greater than 5 meters tall, and greater than 20% of total vegetation cover. More than 75% of the tree species shed foliage simultaneously in response to seasonal change.42. Evergreen Forest - areas dominated by trees generally greater than 5 meters tall, and greater than 20% of total vegetation cover. More than 75% of the tree species maintain their leaves all year. Canopy is never without green foliage.43. Mixed Forest - areas dominated by trees generally greater than 5 meters tall, and greater than 20% of total vegetation cover. Neither deciduous nor evergreen species are greater than 75% of total tree cover. 51. Dwarf Scrub - Alaska only areas dominated by shrubs less than 20 centimeters tall with shrub canopy typically greater than 20% of total vegetation. This type is often co-associated with grasses, sedges, herbs, and non-vascular vegetation.52. Shrub/Scrub - areas dominated by shrubs; less than 5 meters tall with shrub canopy typically greater than 20% of total vegetation. This class includes true shrubs, young trees in an early successional stage or trees stunted from environmental conditions.71. Grassland/Herbaceous - areas dominated by gramanoid or herbaceous vegetation, generally greater than 80% of total vegetation. These areas are not subject to intensive management such as tilling, but can be utilized for grazing.72. Sedge/Herbaceous - Alaska only areas dominated by sedges and forbs, generally greater than 80% of total vegetation. This type can occur with significant other grasses or other grass like plants, and includes sedge tundra, and sedge tussock tundra.73. Lichens - Alaska only areas dominated by fruticose or foliose lichens generally greater than 80% of total vegetation.74. Moss - Alaska only areas dominated by mosses, generally greater than 80% of total vegetation.Planted/Cultivated 81. Pasture/Hay - areas of grasses, legumes, or grass-legume mixtures planted for livestock grazing or the production of seed or hay crops, typically on a perennial cycle. Pasture/hay vegetation accounts for greater than 20% of total vegetation.82. Cultivated Crops - areas used for the production of annual crops, such as corn, soybeans, vegetables, tobacco, and cotton, and also perennial woody crops such as orchards and vineyards. Crop vegetation accounts for greater than 20% of total vegetation. This class also includes all land being actively tilled.90. Woody Wetlands - areas where forest or shrubland vegetation accounts for greater than 20% of vegetative cover and the soil or substrate is periodically saturated with or covered with water.95. Emergent Herbaceous Wetlands - Areas where perennial herbaceous vegetation accounts for greater than 80% of vegetative cover and the soil or substrate is periodically saturated with or covered with water.

Land cover describes the surface of the earth. This time-enabled service of the National Land Cover Database groups land cover into 20 classes based on a modified Anderson Level II classification system. Classes include vegetation type, development density, and agricultural use. Areas of water, ice and snow and barren lands are also identified.The National Land Cover Database products are created through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium (MRLC). 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, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.Time Extent: 2001, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021 for the conterminous United States. The layer displays land cover for Alaska for the years 2001, 2011, and 2016. For Puerto Rico there is only data for 2001. For Hawaii, Esri reclassed land cover data from NOAA Office for Coastal Management, C-CAP into NLCD codes. These reclassed C-CAP data were available for Hawaii for the years 2001, 2005, and 2011. Hawaii C-CAP land cover in its original form can be used in your maps by adding the Hawaii CCAP Land Cover layer directly from the Living Atlas.Units: (Thematic dataset)Cell Size: 30m Source Type: Thematic Pixel Type: Unsigned 8 bitData Projection: North America Albers Equal Area Conic (102008)Mosaic Projection: North America Albers Equal Area Conic (102008)Extent: 50 US States, District of Columbia, Puerto RicoSource: National Land Cover DatabasePublication date: June 30, 2023Time SeriesThis layer is served as a time series. To display a particular year of land cover data, select the year of interest with the time slider in your map client. You may also use the time slider to play the service as an animation. We recommend a one year time interval when displaying the series. If you would like a particular year of data to use in analysis, be sure to use the analysis renderer along with the time slider to choose a valid year.North America Albers ProjectionThis layer is served in North America Albers projection. Albers is an equal area projection, and this allows users of this service to accurately calculate acreage without additional data preparation steps. This also means it takes a tiny bit longer to project on the fly into Web Mercator projection, if that is the destination projection of the service.Processing TemplatesCartographic Renderer - The default. Land cover drawn with Esri symbols. Each year's land cover data is displayed in the time series until there is a newer year of data available.Cartographic Renderer (saturated) - This renderer has the same symbols as the cartographic renderer, but the colors are extra saturated so a transparency may be applied to the layer. This renderer is useful for land cover over a basemap or relief. MRLC Cartographic Renderer - Cartographic renderer using the land cover symbols as issued by NLCD (the same symbols as is on the dataset when you download them from MRLC).Analytic Renderer - Use this in analysis. The time series is restricted by the analytic template to display a raster in only the year the land cover raster is valid. In a cartographic renderer, land cover data is displayed until a new year of data is available so that it plays well in a time series. In the analytic renderer, data is displayed for only the year it is valid. The analytic renderer won't look good in a time series animation, but in analysis this renderer will make sure you only use data for its appropriate year.Simplified Renderer - NLCD reclassified into 10 broad classes. These broad classes may be easier to use in some applications or maps.Forest Renderer - Cartographic renderer which only displays the three forest classes, deciduous, coniferous, and mixed forest.Developed Renderer - Cartographic renderer which only displays the four developed classes, developed open space plus low, medium, and high intensity development classes.Hawaii data has a different sourceMRLC redirects users interested in land cover data for Hawaii to a NOAA product called C-CAP or Coastal Change Analysis Program Regional Land Cover. This C-CAP land cover data was available for Hawaii for the years 2001, 2005, and 2011 at the time of the latest update of this layer. The USA NLCD Land Cover layer reclasses C-CAP land cover codes into NLCD land cover codes for display and analysis, although it may be beneficial for analytical purposes to use the original C-CAP data, which has finer resolution and untranslated land cover codes. The C-CAP land cover data for Hawaii is served as its own 2.4m resolution land cover layer in the Living Atlas.Because it's a different original data source than the rest of NLCD, different years for Hawaii may not be able to be compared in the same way different years for the other states can. But the same method was used to produce each year of this C-CAP derived land cover to make this layer. Note: Because there was no C-CAP data for Kaho'olawe Island in 2011, 2005 data were used for that island.The land cover is projected into the same projection and cellsize as the rest of the layer, using nearest neighbor method, then it is reclassed to approximate the NLCD codes. The following is the reclass table used to make Hawaii C-CAP data closely match the NLCD classification scheme:C-CAP code,NLCD code0,01,02,243,234,225,216,827,818,719,4110,4211,4312,5213,9014,9015,9516,9017,9018,9519,3120,3121,1122,1123,1124,025,12USA NLCD Land Cover service classes with corresponding index number (raster value):11. Open Water - areas of open water, generally with less than 25% cover of vegetation or soil.12. Perennial Ice/Snow - areas characterized by a perennial cover of ice and/or snow, generally greater than 25% of total cover.21. Developed, Open Space - areas with a mixture of some constructed materials, but mostly vegetation in the form of lawn grasses. Impervious surfaces account for less than 20% of total cover. These areas most commonly include large-lot single-family housing units, parks, golf courses, and vegetation planted in developed settings for recreation, erosion control, or aesthetic purposes.22. Developed, Low Intensity - areas with a mixture of constructed materials and vegetation. Impervious surfaces account for 20% to 49% percent of total cover. These areas most commonly include single-family housing units.23. Developed, Medium Intensity - areas with a mixture of constructed materials and vegetation. Impervious surfaces account for 50% to 79% of the total cover. These areas most commonly include single-family housing units.24. Developed High Intensity - highly developed areas where people reside or work in high numbers. Examples include apartment complexes, row houses and commercial/industrial. Impervious surfaces account for 80% to 100% of the total cover.31. Barren Land (Rock/Sand/Clay) - areas of bedrock, desert pavement, scarps, talus, slides, volcanic material, glacial debris, sand dunes, strip mines, gravel pits and other accumulations of earthen material. Generally, vegetation accounts for less than 15% of total cover.41. Deciduous Forest - areas dominated by trees generally greater than 5 meters tall, and greater than 20% of total vegetation cover. More than 75% of the tree species shed foliage simultaneously in response to seasonal change.42. Evergreen Forest - areas dominated by trees generally greater than 5 meters tall, and greater than 20% of total vegetation cover. More than 75% of the tree species maintain their leaves all year. Canopy is never without green foliage.43. Mixed Forest - areas dominated by trees generally greater than 5 meters tall, and greater than 20% of total vegetation cover. Neither deciduous nor evergreen species are greater than 75% of total tree cover. 51. Dwarf Scrub - Alaska only areas dominated by shrubs less than 20 centimeters tall with shrub canopy typically greater than 20% of total vegetation. This type is often co-associated with grasses, sedges, herbs, and non-vascular vegetation.52. Shrub/Scrub - areas dominated by shrubs; less than 5 meters tall with shrub canopy typically greater than 20% of total vegetation. This class includes true shrubs, young trees in an early successional stage or trees stunted from environmental conditions.71. Grassland/Herbaceous - areas dominated by gramanoid or herbaceous vegetation, generally greater than 80% of total vegetation. These areas are not subject to intensive management such as tilling, but can be utilized for grazing.72. Sedge/Herbaceous - Alaska only areas dominated by sedges and forbs, generally greater than 80% of total vegetation. This type can occur with significant other grasses or other grass like plants, and includes sedge tundra, and sedge tussock tundra.73. Lichens - Alaska only areas dominated by fruticose or foliose lichens generally greater than 80% of total vegetation.74. Moss - Alaska only areas dominated by mosses, generally greater than 80% of total vegetation.Planted/Cultivated 81. Pasture/Hay - areas of grasses, legumes, or grass-legume mixtures planted for livestock grazing or the production of seed or hay crops, typically on a perennial cycle. Pasture/hay vegetation accounts for greater than 20% of total vegetation.82. Cultivated Crops - areas used for the production of annual crops, such as corn, soybeans, vegetables, tobacco, and cotton, and also perennial woody crops such as orchards and vineyards. Crop vegetation accounts for greater than 20% of total vegetation. This class also includes all land being actively tilled.90. Woody Wetlands - areas where forest or shrubland vegetation accounts for greater than 20% of vegetative cover and the soil or

This Minnesota NLCD layer is derived from the full NLCD dataset. The national raster is clipped and projected to UTM Zone 15N. The 2019 NLCD used updated methodology and provided updates for all previously released years, so this data should not be compared directly to the other NLCD data published to the Commons. There is a change detection raster available in this resource that provides an overview of the change since 2001. For the original dataset in Albers Equal Area Conic or land cover for prior years processed with the new methods, refer to the NLCD webpage: https://www.mrlc.gov/data

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.

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.

The National Land Cover Database 2001 land cover layer for mapping zones 01-66 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 (USDA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), 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 National Land cover Database (NLCD) circa 2001 for the United States at medium spatial resolution. For a detailed definition and discussion on MRLC and the NLCD 2001 products, refer to Homer et al. (2004) and http://www.mrlc.gov/mrlc2k.asp. The NLCD 2001 is created by partitioning the U.S. into mapping zones. A total of 66 mapping zones were delineated within the conterminous U.S. based on ecoregion and geographical characteristics, edge matching features and the size requirement of Landsat mosaics. An example is mapping zone 01 which encompasses whole or portions of several states, including the state of Washington. Questions about the NLCD mapping zones can be directed to the NLCD 2001 land cover mapping team at the USGS/EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov.

The National Land Cover Database (NLCD) Land Cover Collection is 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. A primary goal of the MRLC Consortium is to generate current, consistent, and seamless national datasets of land cover, percent developed imperviousness, and percent tree canopy. NLCD 2001 land cover was created by partitioning the conterminous United States into 66 mapping zones, based on ecoregion and geographical characteristics, edge matching features, and the size requirement of Landsat mosaics. NLCD 2001 represents a seamless assembly of land cover for all 66 MRLC mapping zones. NLCD 2001 land cover was developed for all 50 states and Puerto Rico / U.S. Virgin Islands. NLCD 2006 land cover was created on a path/row basis and mosaicked to create a seamless national product. NLCD 2006 land cover was developed for the conterminous United States. NLCD 2011 land cover was created on a path/row basis and mosaicked to create a seamless national product. The data in NLCD 2011 are completely integrated with NLCD 2001 and NLCD 2006. As part of the NLCD 2011 project, the NLCD 2001 and 2006 land cover data products were revised and reissued to provide full compatibility with the new NLCD 2011 products. NLCD 2011 land cover was developed for the conterminous United States and Alaska. Questions about the NLCD Land Cover Collection can be directed to the NLCD land cover mapping team at USGS EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov.