USGS EROS Archive – Land Cover – Annual NLCD Collection 1 Land Cover Change
The Annual NLCD Land Cover Change product represents the nature of land cover change from one product year to the next.

Annual NLCD land cover change in the h04v01tile in the Northwest United States
The Annual NLCD Land Cover Change product represents annual land cover change between one product year and the next, with those changes represented in the latter year (e.g., differences in land cover between 1985 and 1986 are shown in the 1986 land cover change product). These differences are represented categorically in the product data by concatenating the before and after land cover class codes.
Strategies to reduce land cover change commission are harmonized with the land cover product, such that the land cover change product always represents the difference between land cover products, without any additional filtering. As such, this product can be independently derived by the user from successive land cover maps but is provided in the product suite as a convenience.
Annual NLCD Collection 1 Product Suite products are processed to 30-meter resolution on an Albers Equal Area Conic (AEA) projection using the World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS84) datum. Annual NLCD products are created as raster images stored as GeoTIFFs with accompanying metadata. The products delivered via EarthExplorer (EE) are Tiled products processed to a common tiling scheme of uniform dimensions bounded by static corner points in a defined grid system. Each tile contains 5,000 x 5,000 30-meter pixels.
Annual NLCD Land Cover Change Legend
The classes below include examples of the land cover change. Classes 11-95 remain the same. A value of 9590 means emergent herbaceous wetlands to wood wetlands. Emergent herbaceous wetlands are class 95 and woody wetlands are class 90.
Land Cover classes only include those in CONUS.

Additional Information
- Annual National Land Cover Database
- Annual NLCD Science Product User Guide
- Annual NLCD Reference and Validation
- Accuracy Assessment Publication
Access Data
EarthExplorer (EE) can be used to search, preview, and download Annual NLCD Land Cover dataset. The collection is available under the Land Cover > Annual NLCD Product Suite category. The data provided via EE are Tiled products.
Annual NLCD Collection 1 Product Suite are also distributed by the MRLC Web Viewer, the MRLC Mosaic Download website, ScienceBase, as Annual NLCD web services, and through USGS AWS S3 (Oregon us-west-2 region). Each distribution site provides its own unique options for the products and services they provide.
Product Digital Object Identifier (DOI)#
Citation
Annual NLCD Product Suite Citation Information
Annual NLCD has no restrictions on the use of science products. Annual NLCD does ask that if you use the data as part of a publication or presentation that use the following citation below; however, it is not a requirement to use the data.
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), 2024, Annual NLCD Collection 1 Science Products: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P94UXNTS
The Annual NLCD Land Cover Change product represents the nature of land cover change from one product year to the next.

Annual NLCD land cover change in the h04v01tile in the Northwest United States
The Annual NLCD Land Cover Change product represents annual land cover change between one product year and the next, with those changes represented in the latter year (e.g., differences in land cover between 1985 and 1986 are shown in the 1986 land cover change product). These differences are represented categorically in the product data by concatenating the before and after land cover class codes.
Strategies to reduce land cover change commission are harmonized with the land cover product, such that the land cover change product always represents the difference between land cover products, without any additional filtering. As such, this product can be independently derived by the user from successive land cover maps but is provided in the product suite as a convenience.
Annual NLCD Collection 1 Product Suite products are processed to 30-meter resolution on an Albers Equal Area Conic (AEA) projection using the World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS84) datum. Annual NLCD products are created as raster images stored as GeoTIFFs with accompanying metadata. The products delivered via EarthExplorer (EE) are Tiled products processed to a common tiling scheme of uniform dimensions bounded by static corner points in a defined grid system. Each tile contains 5,000 x 5,000 30-meter pixels.
Annual NLCD Land Cover Change Legend
The classes below include examples of the land cover change. Classes 11-95 remain the same. A value of 9590 means emergent herbaceous wetlands to wood wetlands. Emergent herbaceous wetlands are class 95 and woody wetlands are class 90.
Land Cover classes only include those in CONUS.

Additional Information
- Annual National Land Cover Database
- Annual NLCD Science Product User Guide
- Annual NLCD Reference and Validation
- Accuracy Assessment Publication
Access Data
EarthExplorer (EE) can be used to search, preview, and download Annual NLCD Land Cover dataset. The collection is available under the Land Cover > Annual NLCD Product Suite category. The data provided via EE are Tiled products.
Annual NLCD Collection 1 Product Suite are also distributed by the MRLC Web Viewer, the MRLC Mosaic Download website, ScienceBase, as Annual NLCD web services, and through USGS AWS S3 (Oregon us-west-2 region). Each distribution site provides its own unique options for the products and services they provide.
Product Digital Object Identifier (DOI)#
Citation
Annual NLCD Product Suite Citation Information
Annual NLCD has no restrictions on the use of science products. Annual NLCD does ask that if you use the data as part of a publication or presentation that use the following citation below; however, it is not a requirement to use the data.
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), 2024, Annual NLCD Collection 1 Science Products: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P94UXNTS