Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium

Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium
Name	Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium
Formation	1998
Type	Consortium
Headquarters	Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Region served	United States
Parent organization	United States Geological Survey

Contents

Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium

The Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium was a federal consortium formed to coordinate production of national land cover, land use, and vegetation datasets for the United States, supporting agencies such as the United States Geological Survey, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, United States Department of Agriculture, Environmental Protection Agency, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It served as a focal point for integrating remote sensing from platforms like Landsat and MODIS with ground data from inventories such as the National Resources Inventory and the National Land Cover Database, and engaged stakeholders including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, and National Park Service.

Overview and History

The consortium was established in the late 1990s with participation from agencies including the United States Geological Survey, NASA, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the Environmental Protection Agency to address the need for consistent national datasets similar to earlier efforts by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's EOS program, the Global Land Cover Network, and regional programs such as the Alaska Satellite Facility projects. Early milestones referenced collaborations with the Landsat 7 mission, the Landsat Program, and the Earth Observing System community, while methodological foundations drew on work from institutions like the University of Maryland, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Over time the consortium coordinated updates to the National Land Cover Database, responding to advances exemplified by Landsat 8, the Sentinel-2 program, and algorithmic innovations from centers including the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the USGS EROS Center.

The consortium’s mission aligned with mandates of participating entities such as the United States Geological Survey, United States Department of Agriculture, and Department of the Interior to provide interoperable datasets for agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Objectives included standardizing classification schemes used by programs like the National Land Cover Database, enabling multi-scale analyses compatible with products from MODIS, VIIRS, and Sentinel. It sought to support research by institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and universities including Harvard University, Stanford University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology through data stewardship, best practices, and outreach with organizations like the American Geophysical Union and the Society for American Archaeology.

Data products coordinated by the consortium included wall-to-wall land cover maps, impervious surface estimates, and fractional vegetation cover layers compatible with the National Land Cover Database, derived from sensors including Landsat, MODIS, Sentinel-2, and airborne collections like AVIRIS and NAIP. Methodologies synthesized approaches from the USGS EROS Center, machine learning methods developed at Carnegie Mellon University and University of California, Berkeley, and spectral analysis techniques advanced at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Ancillary datasets integrated included the National Hydrography Dataset, Soil Survey Geographic Database, National Elevation Dataset, and the Census Bureau's TIGER/Line products; accuracy assessment protocols referenced standards used by the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing and validation work from USGS National Geospatial Program partners.

The consortium fostered partnerships across federal agencies such as the USDA Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and international collaborators including the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. Academic collaborations involved universities like University of Maryland, Purdue University, Iowa State University, University of Montana, and research laboratories including Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Nonprofit and professional society engagement included the Nature Conservancy, the World Wildlife Fund, the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Cooperative projects linked to programs such as the National Ecological Observatory Network, Long Term Ecological Research Network, and regional planning authorities including metropolitan planning organizations and state natural resource agencies.

Consortium outputs supported applications across agencies and stakeholders: land change science for researchers at Columbia University and University of California, Santa Barbara; conservation planning used by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and The Nature Conservancy; urban analysis applied by city planners in partnership with the Federal Highway Administration and Department of Housing and Urban Development; agricultural monitoring leveraged by the United States Department of Agriculture and commodity analysts; and climate and carbon accounting informing Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change-related studies and national greenhouse gas inventories. Products were cited in policy and management contexts by entities such as the Environmental Protection Agency, state departments of natural resources, and international assessments coordinated by United Nations Environment Programme partners.

Governance involved interagency steering groups composed of representatives from the United States Geological Survey, NASA, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of the Interior, with technical input from organizations such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the USGS EROS Center. Funding derived from congressional appropriations to agencies including the United States Geological Survey and earmarked program funds administered by partner agencies, supplemented by cooperative agreements with universities like University of Maryland and grants involving foundations such as the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and federal research programs including the National Science Foundation.

Category:United States environmental organizations