Land cover dataset for the Lower Rio Grande Valley (2023)

To represent land cover for modeling landscape connectivity and wildlife access to water in a binational study region, we developed a 2023 Landsat-based land cover map of the Lower Rio Grande Valley with 30-m resolution and 18 land cover classes, spanning portions of Texas (USA), Tamaulipas (Mexico), and Nuevo León (Mexico). We used Landsat 8 data, Landsat-derived spectral indices, and other remote sensing data as predictor variables for a random forest classification algorithm in Google Earth Engine. The resulting land cover dataset at 30-meter resolution was continuous across the U.S. – Mexico border.