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USGS Releases New Products that Map Four Decades of Land Cover Change

News Release

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About the Annual National Land Cover Database (NLCD)

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LCMAP Change Stories

Every Pixel Tells a Story

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LCMAP Data

Now Available: Collection 1.3 Land Cover and Change Products (1985-2021)

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LCMAP Data

Now Available: Hawaii 1.0 Land Cover and Change Products: 2000-2020

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LCMAP Tutorials

A series of Python-based Jupyter Notebooks showing users how to get started with LCMAP data in automated workflows.

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Pathfinder Workflows

Python-based use case example workflows that demonstrate how to use LCMAP science data products for land cover analyses.

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LCMAP Reference Data

25,000 data points across the U.S.

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Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection

Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection (LCMAP) represented a new generation of land cover mapping and change monitoring from the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. NOTE: This webpage refers to a legacy land cover and change product. Please visit Annual National Land Cover Database (NLCD), the current land cover and change resource.

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Annual National Land Cover Database (NLCD)

Annual NLCD (2023) for the conterminous United States, showing different major land cover types in the background

Annual NLCD leverages advancements in artificial intelligence and deep learning techniques to offer a six-product suite that offers data describing year-by-year nationwide land cover and land change over nearly four decades. 

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LCMAP Products

LCMAP Time Since Last Change Product (SCLAST) product for an area over Portland, Oregon for product year 2005.

LCMAP offers a suite of 10 annual data products that depict land cover and spectral change in the conterminous United States. LCMAP CONUS Collection 1.3 and Hawaii 1.0 products are now available. 

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LCMAP Assessments: Bone Valley

Cover of the LCMAP Florida Phosphate Mining Story

Florida's Bone Valley is the source for about 60 percent of the phosphate mined for fertilizer in the U.S. LCMAP data offers insight on the frequent land cover changes that accompany the mining process.

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News

USGS Reinvents Widely Used NLCD

USGS Reinvents Widely Used NLCD

USGS Releases New Products that Map Four Decades of Land Cover Change

USGS Releases New Products that Map Four Decades of Land Cover Change

NLCD’s Path from Early Landscape Snapshot to Decades of Change

NLCD’s Path from Early Landscape Snapshot to Decades of Change

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Publications

SSEBop evapotranspiration estimates using synthetically derived Landsat data from the continuous change detection and classification algorithm

The operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance (SSEBop) model has been utilized to generate gridded evapotranspiration data from Landsat images. These estimates are primarily driven by two sources of information: reference evapotranspiration and Landsat land surface temperature (LST) values. Hence, SSEBop is limited by the availability of Landsat data. Here, in this proof-of-concept paper, we u
Authors
Mikael Peter Hiestand, Heather J. Tollerud, W. Chris Funk, Gabriel B. Senay, Mackenzie Friedrichs, Kate Fickas
By
Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center , Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection

Characterization of change in tree cover state and condition over the conterminous United States

Variability in the effects of disturbances and extreme climate events can lead to changes in tree cover over time, including partial or complete loss, with diverse ecological consequences. It is therefore critical to identify in space and time the change processes that lead to tree cover change. Studies of change are often hampered by the lack of data capable of consistently detecting different ty
Authors
Francis K Dwomoh, Roger F. Auch
By
Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center , Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection

Assessment of public and private land cover change in the United States from 1985–2018

An assessment of annual land cover on publicly and privately managed lands across the conterminous United States (CONUS) from 1985–2018 was performed, including land cover conversions within their management category, to inform future policy and land-use decision-making in natural resource management. Synthesizing land cover data with land management delineations aids our ability to address effect
Authors
Nathan C. Healey, Janis L. Taylor, Roger F. Auch
By
National Land Imaging Program, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center , Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection
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Science

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Thumbnail image for Eyes on Earth Episode 126 – Annual NLCD, showing photos of Jesslyn Brown and Jon Dewitz

Eyes on Earth Episode 126 – Annual NLCD

The next generation of USGS land cover mapping is here. Annual NLCD provides land cover data of the U.S. every year back to 1985.
By
Core Science Systems Mission Area, National Land Imaging Program, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center , Landsat Missions, Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection, Land Use Land Cover Modeling
link

Eyes on Earth Episode 126 – Annual NLCD

The next generation of USGS land cover mapping is here. Annual NLCD provides land cover data of the U.S. every year back to 1985.
Learn More
link
Photo of five women outside a building, with four mugshots and a little text laid on top of the photo

Eyes on Earth Episode 115 – EROS Women in Science

To celebrate Women’s History Month, we gathered some of the women who have made a difference in science at EROS.
By
Core Science Systems Mission Area, National Land Imaging Program, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center , EROS History Project, Landsat Missions, Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection
link

Eyes on Earth Episode 115 – EROS Women in Science

To celebrate Women’s History Month, we gathered some of the women who have made a difference in science at EROS.
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link
Two men stand by a wall display of a map and explanations, with a logo on top

Eyes on Earth Episode 107 – EROS 50th: Land Cover, Part 2

The next step for two strong land cover products at USGS EROS is to combine them to create something even better.
By
Core Science Systems Mission Area, Land Change Science Program, National Land Imaging Program, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center , Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection, Land Use Land Cover Modeling
link

Eyes on Earth Episode 107 – EROS 50th: Land Cover, Part 2

The next step for two strong land cover products at USGS EROS is to combine them to create something even better.
Learn More
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