Animations of Annual NLCD land cover change and Landsat from 1985 to 2023 in Hamilton County, Florida

Animations of land cover change using Annual National Land Cover Database (NLCD) land cover (on the left) and Landsat true-color images (on the right). Changes to the landscape can be seen over the 38 years from 1985 to 2023. This phosphate mine in Hamilton County, in northern Florida, expands in all directions over time, changing land cover from year to year. Landsat is the ultimate source of information for the derived Annual NLCD land cover changes. In the Annual NLCD land cover images, wetlands, grasslands and pastures (light blue, light tan and yellow respectively) are removed and changed to barren land. Barren land (gray) is exposed as the phosphate rock is excavated and put into slurry ponds before it is transported to a fertilizer production facility. After all marketable phosphate rock is removed, efforts to restore vegetation begin, returning land cover back to grassland, shrubland and wetland. Some lakes and ponds are created as well in the final restoration process. The USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center is home of the Landsat archive and leads production of Annual NLCD.