Daniel Sorenson has worked for the government for over 30 years. Currently I am a geographer working with the Western Geographic Science Center in Seattle, WA.
National Land Cover Database
National Land Cover Database
NLCD is generated in cooperation with the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium (MRLC) a partnership of Federal agencies working together to produce current, nationally consistent, land cover products for all 50 states and Puerto Rico.
Land Cover Trends
Land Cover Trends
Land Cover Trends was a research project focused on understanding the rates, trends, causes, and consequences of contemporary U.S. land use and land cover change. The project spanned from 1999 to 2011.
My primary interested and expertise is in using Landsat and other remotely sensed imagery in map creation and analyze spatial patterns. I am also the content manager for the Western Geographic Science Center.
I started my federal career with the Defense Mapping Agency (DMA) as a geographer in the Geographic Names Branch. I edited the names and legends of maps and charts plus translated the Germanic language maps into English.
As a cartographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), I compiled nautical charts, working mainly in the Gulf of Mexico region of the United States.
When I joined the U.S. Geographic Survey (USGS), I started as an assistant supervisor for the Digital Orthophoto Quad (DOQ) program reviewing the completed DOQs. After transferring to Seattle, I have worked mainly on the Trends and National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) projects. I have also been a part of the accuracy assessment of the NLCD product.
I am the content manager for the Western Geographic Science Center.
Professional Experience
1998 - Current: Geographer, Western Geographic Science Center (WGSC)
1995 -1998: Cartographer, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
1987 - 1990: Geographer, Defense Mapping Agency (DMA)
Education and Certifications
B.A. in Conservation, Geography and German, Carthage College
M.S. in Forestry with emphasis in remote sensing and computer cartography, University of Minnesota
Certificate in Geographic Information Systems, St. Cloud State University
Science and Products
Thematic accuracy assessment of the NLCD 2019 land cover for the conterminous United States
The National Land Cover Database (NLCD), a product suite produced through the MultiResolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) consortium, is an operational land cover monitoring program. Starting from a base year of 2001, NLCD releases a land cover database every 2–3-years. The recent release of NLCD2019 extends the database to 18 years. We implemented a stratified random sample to collect land cover
Authors
James Wickham, Stephen V. Stehman, Daniel G. Sorenson, Leila Gass, Jon Dewitz
National Land Cover Database 2019: A comprehensive strategy for creating the 1986-2019 forest disturbance product
The National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2016 products show that, between 2001 and 2016, nearly half of the land cover change in the conterminous United States (CONUS) involved forested areas. To ensure the quality of NLCD land cover and land cover change products, it is important to accurately detect the location and time of forest disturbance. We designed a comprehensive strategy to integrate a c
Authors
Suming Jin, Jon Dewitz, Congcong Li, Daniel G. Sorenson, Zhe Zhu, Rakibul Shogib, Patrick Danielson, Brian Granneman, Catherine Costello, Adam Case, Leila Gass
Thematic accuracy assessment of the 2011 National Land Cover Database (NLCD)
Accuracy assessment is a standard protocol of National Land Cover Database (NLCD) mapping. Here we report agreement statistics between map and reference labels for NLCD 2011, which includes land cover for ca. 2001, ca. 2006, and ca. 2011. The two main objectives were assessment of agreement between map and reference labels for the three, single-date NLCD land cover products at Level II and Level I
Authors
James Wickham, Stephen V. Stehman, Leila Gass, Jon Dewitz, Daniel G. Sorenson, Brian J. Granneman, Richard V. Poss, Lori Anne Baer
The Southern Piedmont’s continued land-use evolution, 1973–2011
The southern Piedmont in the U.S. was an important farming region during the 19th century, but by the end of the 20th century, agricultural land use had decreased substantially with forest becoming the majority land cover by the 1970s. Geographical literature has documented this change but has not concentrated on the region’s contemporary land uses. The Piedmont currently has three main types of l
Authors
Roger F. Auch, Darrell E. Napton, Kristi Sayler, Mark A. Drummond, Steven Kambly, Daniel G. Sorenson
Land cover trends dataset, 1973-2000
The U.S. Geological Survey Land Cover Trends Project is releasing a 1973–2000 time-series land-use/land-cover dataset for the conterminous United States. The dataset contains 5 dates of land-use/land-cover data for 2,688 sample blocks randomly selected within 84 ecological regions. The nominal dates of the land-use/land-cover maps are 1973, 1980, 1986, 1992, and 2000. The land-use/land-cover maps
Authors
Christopher E. Soulard, William Acevedo, Roger F. Auch, Terry L. Sohl, Mark A. Drummond, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Daniel G. Sorenson, Steven Kambly, Tamara S. Wilson, Janis L. Taylor, Kristi Sayler, Michael P. Stier, Christopher A. Barnes, Steven C. Methven, Thomas R. Loveland, Rachel Headley, Mark S. Brooks
Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills Ecoregion: Chapter 12 in Status and trends of land change in the Western United States--1973 to 2000
The Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills Ecoregion (Omernik, 1987; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1997) covers approximately 57,329 km² (22,135 mi²) in the states of Washington, Oregon, and California (fig. 1). The ecoregion is bounded on the east by the Columbia Plateau, Blue Mountains, and Northern Basin and Range Ecoregions; on the south by the Sierra Nevada Ecoregion; on the west by th
Authors
Daniel G. Sorenson
Cascades Ecoregion: Chapter 11 in Status and trends of land change in the Western United States--1973 to 2000
The Cascades Ecoregion (Omernik, 1987; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1997) covers approximately 46,787 km2 (18,064 mi2) in Washington, Oregon, and California (fig. 1). The main body of the ecoregion extends from Snoqualmie Pass, Washington, in the north, to Hayden Mountain, near State Highway 66 in southern Oregon. Also included in the ecoregion is a small isolated section south of Bend, O
Authors
Daniel G. Sorenson
Willamette Valley Ecoregion: Chapter 3 in Status and trends of land change in the Western United States--1973 to 2000
The Willamette Valley Ecoregion (as defined by Omernik, 1987; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1997) covers approximately 14,458 km² (5,582 mi2), making it one of the smallest ecoregions in the conterminous United States. The long, alluvial Willamette Valley, which stretches north to south more than 193 km and ranges from 32 to 64 km wide, is nestled between the sedimentary and metamorphic Co
Authors
Tamara S. Wilson, Daniel G. Sorenson
Puget Lowland Ecoregion: Chapter 2 in Status and trends of land change in the Western United States--1973 to 2000
The Puget Lowland Ecoregion covers an area of approximately 18,009 km² (6,953 mi²) within northwestern Washington (fig. 1) (Omernik, 1987; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1997). The ecoregion is located between the Coast Range Ecoregion to the west, which includes the Olympic Mountains, and the North Cascades and the Cascades Ecoregions to the east, which include the Cascade Range. From the
Authors
Daniel G. Sorenson
Non-USGS Publications**
Wickham, J., Stehman, S.V., Sorenson, D.G., Gass, L., Dewitz, Jon A., Thematic accuracy assessment of the NLCD 2016 land cover for the conterminous United States: Remote Sensing of Environment, v. 257, 2021 at
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112357
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112357
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
Science and Products
- Publications
Thematic accuracy assessment of the NLCD 2019 land cover for the conterminous United States
The National Land Cover Database (NLCD), a product suite produced through the MultiResolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) consortium, is an operational land cover monitoring program. Starting from a base year of 2001, NLCD releases a land cover database every 2–3-years. The recent release of NLCD2019 extends the database to 18 years. We implemented a stratified random sample to collect land coverAuthorsJames Wickham, Stephen V. Stehman, Daniel G. Sorenson, Leila Gass, Jon DewitzNational Land Cover Database 2019: A comprehensive strategy for creating the 1986-2019 forest disturbance product
The National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2016 products show that, between 2001 and 2016, nearly half of the land cover change in the conterminous United States (CONUS) involved forested areas. To ensure the quality of NLCD land cover and land cover change products, it is important to accurately detect the location and time of forest disturbance. We designed a comprehensive strategy to integrate a cAuthorsSuming Jin, Jon Dewitz, Congcong Li, Daniel G. Sorenson, Zhe Zhu, Rakibul Shogib, Patrick Danielson, Brian Granneman, Catherine Costello, Adam Case, Leila GassThematic accuracy assessment of the 2011 National Land Cover Database (NLCD)
Accuracy assessment is a standard protocol of National Land Cover Database (NLCD) mapping. Here we report agreement statistics between map and reference labels for NLCD 2011, which includes land cover for ca. 2001, ca. 2006, and ca. 2011. The two main objectives were assessment of agreement between map and reference labels for the three, single-date NLCD land cover products at Level II and Level IAuthorsJames Wickham, Stephen V. Stehman, Leila Gass, Jon Dewitz, Daniel G. Sorenson, Brian J. Granneman, Richard V. Poss, Lori Anne BaerThe Southern Piedmont’s continued land-use evolution, 1973–2011
The southern Piedmont in the U.S. was an important farming region during the 19th century, but by the end of the 20th century, agricultural land use had decreased substantially with forest becoming the majority land cover by the 1970s. Geographical literature has documented this change but has not concentrated on the region’s contemporary land uses. The Piedmont currently has three main types of lAuthorsRoger F. Auch, Darrell E. Napton, Kristi Sayler, Mark A. Drummond, Steven Kambly, Daniel G. SorensonLand cover trends dataset, 1973-2000
The U.S. Geological Survey Land Cover Trends Project is releasing a 1973–2000 time-series land-use/land-cover dataset for the conterminous United States. The dataset contains 5 dates of land-use/land-cover data for 2,688 sample blocks randomly selected within 84 ecological regions. The nominal dates of the land-use/land-cover maps are 1973, 1980, 1986, 1992, and 2000. The land-use/land-cover mapsAuthorsChristopher E. Soulard, William Acevedo, Roger F. Auch, Terry L. Sohl, Mark A. Drummond, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Daniel G. Sorenson, Steven Kambly, Tamara S. Wilson, Janis L. Taylor, Kristi Sayler, Michael P. Stier, Christopher A. Barnes, Steven C. Methven, Thomas R. Loveland, Rachel Headley, Mark S. BrooksEastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills Ecoregion: Chapter 12 in Status and trends of land change in the Western United States--1973 to 2000
The Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills Ecoregion (Omernik, 1987; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1997) covers approximately 57,329 km² (22,135 mi²) in the states of Washington, Oregon, and California (fig. 1). The ecoregion is bounded on the east by the Columbia Plateau, Blue Mountains, and Northern Basin and Range Ecoregions; on the south by the Sierra Nevada Ecoregion; on the west by thAuthorsDaniel G. SorensonCascades Ecoregion: Chapter 11 in Status and trends of land change in the Western United States--1973 to 2000
The Cascades Ecoregion (Omernik, 1987; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1997) covers approximately 46,787 km2 (18,064 mi2) in Washington, Oregon, and California (fig. 1). The main body of the ecoregion extends from Snoqualmie Pass, Washington, in the north, to Hayden Mountain, near State Highway 66 in southern Oregon. Also included in the ecoregion is a small isolated section south of Bend, OAuthorsDaniel G. SorensonWillamette Valley Ecoregion: Chapter 3 in Status and trends of land change in the Western United States--1973 to 2000
The Willamette Valley Ecoregion (as defined by Omernik, 1987; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1997) covers approximately 14,458 km² (5,582 mi2), making it one of the smallest ecoregions in the conterminous United States. The long, alluvial Willamette Valley, which stretches north to south more than 193 km and ranges from 32 to 64 km wide, is nestled between the sedimentary and metamorphic CoAuthorsTamara S. Wilson, Daniel G. SorensonPuget Lowland Ecoregion: Chapter 2 in Status and trends of land change in the Western United States--1973 to 2000
The Puget Lowland Ecoregion covers an area of approximately 18,009 km² (6,953 mi²) within northwestern Washington (fig. 1) (Omernik, 1987; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1997). The ecoregion is located between the Coast Range Ecoregion to the west, which includes the Olympic Mountains, and the North Cascades and the Cascades Ecoregions to the east, which include the Cascade Range. From theAuthorsDaniel G. SorensonNon-USGS Publications**
Wickham, J., Stehman, S.V., Sorenson, D.G., Gass, L., Dewitz, Jon A., Thematic accuracy assessment of the NLCD 2016 land cover for the conterminous United States: Remote Sensing of Environment, v. 257, 2021 at
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112357**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.