Visualizing Rangeland Change with RCMAP Data

Rangeland managers need information on the current vegetation condition and how the landscape has changed through time. To address this need, scientists from the USGS and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) developed the Rangeland Condition Monitoring Assessment and Projection (RCMAP) project. These data classify western U.S. rangelands as fractional (0-100%) cover of ten ground cover components (annual herbaceous, bare ground, herbaceous, litter, non-sagebrush shrub, perennial herbaceous, sagebrush, shrub, tree, and shrub height). Maps are produced for each year in a time-series currently stretching from 1985 to 2024, key to understanding vegetation response to changing management practices and to disturbance.

In this video, we describe how users in diverse array of fields can apply RCMAP data to rangeland decision making. The key power of RCMAP data is the long-term perspective covering 40+ years, which allows managers and researchers to retrospectively analyze the impacts of various treatments, disturbances, and weather patterns on vegetation conditions. In this video, we also describe how users can access RCMAP data by various means on the MRLC.gov website, FTP, and Google Earth Engine. Users can also explore the spatial and temporal patterns of the data on the MRLC Rangelands viewer.

RCMAP: https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/636a6727d34ed907bf6a6859

MRLC: https://www.mrlc.gov/

MRLC Rangeland Viewer: https://www.mrlc.gov/rangeland-viewer/