Projections

The goal of land use and land cover (LULC) modeling activities is to 1) temporally extend remote sensing-based land cover databases for future and historical time periods when remote sensing data are not available, and 2) facilitate the application of modeled landscape data. In more than 12 years since the Forecasting Scenarios of land use (FORE-SCE) model was developed and first applied, USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center has developed a unique capability to produce landscape projections that match the spatial, temporal, and thematic characteristics of National Land Cover Database (NLCD) or LCMAP land cover products. Using actual land use and land management parcels for spatial modeling ensures the realistic representation of landscape pattern. By producing projections that match existing USGS land cover data, our modeled land cover data can be used seamlessly in existing work flows, enabling analyses of past, current, and future landscape impacts on biodiversity, hydrology, climate and weather, and a host of other ecologically and economically relevant processes.