The United States Geological Survey (USGS), in collaboration with the Multi-resolution Landscape Consortium (MRLC), has provided the community with the National Land Cover Database (NLCD), a detailed land cover database for more than 30 years.  To produce the next generation of USGS land cover, with moderate thematic detail at low latency and annual frequency, research is well underway for single stream land cover products. In the initial 2024 product release, users can expect Anderson Level II type land cover classes (for example, the 16 land cover categories used in the current NLCD classification typology) at 30-meter spatial resolution on an annual time step for the years 1985-2023 for the conterminous United States. Research is underway to improve the methodology for producing and validating land cover and change related components included in the next-generation product suite and follow-on products. The results will provide USGS with leading-edge capabilities for land cover monitoring, assessments, and projections.  

In the coming months, USGS in collaboration with the MRLC, will publish a 2021 CONUS land cover suite (NLCD 2021). Later in 2023, we will release the Conterminous United States (CONUS) Reference Data product updated through 2021, followed by a validation assessment of the Collection 1.3 LCMAP CONUS Science Products. After Collection 1.3, no further production of LCMAP Science Products will occur.

Be sure to sign up for the listserv to stay up to date with USGS’s next generation land cover activities and receive other relevant land cover news. 

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