The National Land Cover Database, or NLCD, was the first and remains the most well-known set of satellite-based land cover mapping products released by EROS. It sorts the each 30-by-30-meter plot of land in the United States into a land cover class, such as cropland, pasture, high-intensity developed, deciduous forest, and the like.
Tree Canopy Cover Product Added to National Land Cover Database
By Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center
June 2, 2023
A newly released Tree Canopy Cover product adds a helpful layer of information to the definitive land cover product National Land Cover Database (NLCD), generated at the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center in partnership with other agencies.
Tree Canopy Cover (TCC) can be valuable for helping monitor the current extent and dynamics of treed lands, regardless of the forest definition used. For example, it is used to examine watershed conditions, to make scenario-based projections of future canopy cover, and as input to i-Tree, an urban forestry tool that helps users understand their current tree cover and plan for new tree plantings, said the USDA Forest Service’s Karen Schleeweis, who is the TCC science lead.
Some cities or organizations have access to high resolution data, such as lidar, to provide tree canopy cover data for specific areas at specific times, but not all can afford it. The TCC benefits from the use of Landsat satellite imagery collected continually over the entire landscape, Schleeweis said.
The TCC data are available for the conterminous United States at the same intervals as the NLCD land cover data between 2011 and 2021: 2011, 2013, 2016, 2019 and 2021. The data are produced within a time-series framework, so change is now inherent in the annual time steps, with a minimum of 10% gain or loss of canopy cover in a 30 meter pixel to indicate change.
The annual time steps represent significant progress in the product, Schleeweis said. “We'll be able to serve a whole new group of users who are trying to understand and monitor continuous tree canopy cover through time.”
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A new, related Science TCC data set is a derivative of the NLCD TCC production workflow and also has an annual, though longer, time-series: 2008-2021. These data sets are produced under the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium, a group of federal agencies—including the USGS and Forest Service—who coordinate and generate consistent and relevant land cover information at the national scale.
Similar NLCD TCC and Science TCC data sets for coastal Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and American Virgin Islands will be available in the summer of 2023.
“What our data set offers is a consistent data set across the country that really can benefit a lot of users,” Schleeweis said.
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National Land Cover Database
EROS is central to the creation of the National Land Cover Database (NLCD), which is updated every two to three years and stands as the definitive land cover database for the United States. - Multimedia
Listen to Eyes on Earth podcast episodes to learn more about the National Land Cover Database.
Eyes on Earth - Episode 3 - The National Land Cover Database
Sorting Landsat data into an accurate and reliable record of land cover in the United States is one of the most important jobs at EROS. This episode of Eyes on Earth explores the what, how, and why of the National Land Cover Database (NLCD).
Eyes on Earth Episode 54 - National Land Cover Database 2019The National Land Cover Database, or NLCD, was the first and remains the most well-known set of satellite-based land cover mapping products released by EROS. It sorts the each 30-by-30-meter plot of land in the United States into a land cover class, such as cropland, pasture, high-intensity developed, deciduous forest, and the like.
The National Land Cover Database, or NLCD, was the first and remains the most well-known set of satellite-based land cover mapping products released by EROS. It sorts the each 30-by-30-meter plot of land in the United States into a land cover class, such as cropland, pasture, high-intensity developed, deciduous forest, and the like.
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