National Land Cover Database
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| National Land Cover Database | |
|---|---|
| Name | National Land Cover Database |
| Abbreviation | NLCD |
| Country | United States |
| Producer | United States Geological Survey; Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium |
| First release | 2001 |
| Latest release | 2019 (with ongoing updates) |
| Spatial resolution | 30 m |
| Format | Raster |
National Land Cover Database The National Land Cover Database is a continental-scale land cover and land cover change dataset for the United States produced by the United States Geological Survey in collaboration with the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium. The database supports applications across Environmental Protection Agency, United States Department of Agriculture, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Department of Defense and state agencies, and has been integrated into decision-support systems used by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Bureau of Land Management, and regional planning organizations. The dataset underpins research published in journals such as Remote Sensing of Environment, Environmental Research Letters, and Journal of Applied Ecology.
Overview
The NLCD provides wall-to-wall, 30-meter resolution raster maps of land cover, land cover change, and ancillary products for the United States including territories and the District of Columbia. The program is coordinated by the United States Geological Survey and the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium, with contributions from agencies including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, United States Department of Agriculture, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and state mapping programs. It builds upon legacy mapping efforts such as the National Land Cover Characteristics (LANDFIRE) and complements satellite missions like Landsat 5, Landsat 7, and Landsat 8. The NLCD is widely cited alongside continental datasets such as CORINE Land Cover and global products like MODIS Land Cover and GlobeLand30.
Data and Methodology
NLCD classification integrates time-series analysis of optical satellite imagery from Landsat 5, Landsat 7, and Landsat 8 and auxiliary inputs from ASTER, Sentinel-2, and national inventories like the National Agricultural Statistics Service Cropland Data Layer and the Forest Inventory and Analysis program. Processing uses methods developed in collaborations with research groups at University of Maryland, University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin–Madison, and private partners including Esri consultants and contractors. Algorithms include decision-tree classifiers, machine-learning approaches tested against reference data from the National Land Cover Database Reference Sample, and change-detection techniques informed by work at Carnegie Mellon University and University of Colorado Boulder. The NLCD methodology references standards from the Federal Geographic Data Committee and interoperability practices promoted by the Open Geospatial Consortium.
Products and Classification Scheme
Primary NLCD products include categorical land cover maps, percent impervious surface, tree canopy cover, and land cover change layers for multi-year epochs; derived products include disturbance frequency and recovery metrics used by National Park Service and United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The NLCD classification scheme uses a hierarchical legend with classes such as developed impervious, barren, forest (deciduous, evergreen, mixed), shrubland, grassland, cultivated crops, wetlands (woody and herbaceous), and open water; the scheme aligns conceptually with legends used by CORINE Land Cover and the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme. Products are provided in GeoTIFF and cloud-optimized formats suitable for ingestion into platforms like Google Earth Engine, Esri ArcGIS, and QGIS.
Applications and Uses
NLCD datasets inform conservation planning by agencies such as the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and NGOs including the Nature Conservancy; they support urban planning for municipalities and metropolitan planning organizations like the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and state departments of transportation. Ecological modeling applications include species distribution modeling used by researchers at Smithsonian Institution and Yale University, carbon accounting referenced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports, hydrologic modeling in USGS National Water Census studies, and wildfire risk assessment in programs run by the U.S. Forest Service and Cal Fire. The dataset is used in public health exposure studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and in economic analyses by the Bureau of Economic Analysis and National Science Foundation-funded projects.
Accuracy and Validation
NLCD accuracy assessments use stratified random sampling and independent validation datasets from field campaigns coordinated with the National Land Cover Database Reference Sample, state natural heritage programs, and academic partners at Pennsylvania State University and Oregon State University. Reported thematic accuracies vary by class and epoch, with higher accuracies for forest and open water classes and lower accuracies for heterogeneous urban and mixed agriculture classes; these results are documented in technical reports produced by the United States Geological Survey and peer-reviewed studies in Remote Sensing of Environment and International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation. Ancillary accuracy metrics include user’s and producer’s accuracies, confusion matrices, and spatial cross-validation referenced against Forest Inventory and Analysis plot data and the National Wetlands Inventory.
Updates and Release History
Initial NLCD releases date to 2001 with subsequent major epochs released for 2006, 2011, 2016, and 2019, and ongoing thematic updates for percent imperviousness and canopy cover; revision timelines have been coordinated with Landsat mission releases and funding cycles at the United States Geological Survey and the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium. Historical versions have been produced to support retrospective change analyses and have been cited in long-term studies alongside datasets such as National Land Cover Database (2001) legacy products and continental change layers used in synthesis reports by United Nations Environment Programme and national assessments like the National Climate Assessment.
Accessibility and Data Access Tools
NLCD data are distributed freely via the United States Geological Survey data portals and are accessible through cloud platforms including Google Earth Engine and the Amazon Web Services open data registry; visualization and download tools include the USGS EarthExplorer, the USGS National Map, and plugins for QGIS and Esri ArcGIS Online. Researchers and practitioners access NLCD products through APIs and bulk download services used in large-scale analyses at institutions like Harvard University, Stanford University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology and by agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and United States Army Corps of Engineers.