National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2019 Products (ver. 3.0, February 2024)
Dates
Publication Date
2021-06-04
Start Date
2001
End Date
2019
Last Revision
2024-02-29
Citation
Dewitz, J., and U.S. Geological Survey, 2021, National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2019 Products (ver. 3.0, February 2024): U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9KZCM54.
Summary
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in partnership with several federal agencies, has developed and released five National Land Cover Database (NLCD) products over the past two decades: NLCD 1992, 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016. The 2016 release saw landcover created for additional years of 2003, 2008, and 2013. These products provide spatially explicit and reliable information on the Nation’s land cover and land cover change. To continue the legacy of NLCD and further establish a long-term monitoring capability for the Nation’s land resources, the USGS has designed a new generation of NLCD products named NLCD 2019. The NLCD 2019 design aims to provide innovative, consistent, and robust methodologies for production of a multi-temporal land [...]
Summary
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in partnership with several federal agencies, has developed and released five National Land Cover Database (NLCD) products over the past two decades: NLCD 1992, 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016. The 2016 release saw landcover created for additional years of 2003, 2008, and 2013. These products provide spatially explicit and reliable information on the Nation’s land cover and land cover change. To continue the legacy of NLCD and further establish a long-term monitoring capability for the Nation’s land resources, the USGS has designed a new generation of NLCD products named NLCD 2019. The NLCD 2019 design aims to provide innovative, consistent, and robust methodologies for production of a multi-temporal land cover and land cover change database from 2001 to 2019 at 2–3-year intervals. Comprehensive research was conducted and resulted in developed strategies for NLCD 2019: continued integration between impervious surface and all landcover products with impervious surface being directly mapped as developed classes in the landcover, a streamlined compositing process for assembling and preprocessing based on Landsat imagery and geospatial ancillary datasets; a multi-source integrated training data development and decision-tree based land cover classifications; a temporally, spectrally, and spatially integrated land cover change analysis strategy; a hierarchical theme-based post-classification and integration protocol for generating land cover and change products; a continuous fields biophysical parameters modeling method; and an automated scripted operational system for the NLCD 2019 production. The performance of the developed strategies and methods were tested in twenty composite referenced areas throughout the conterminous U.S. An overall accuracy assessment from the 2016 publication give a 91% overall landcover accuracy, with the developed classes also showing a 91% accuracy in overall developed. Results from this study confirm the robustness of this comprehensive and highly automated procedure for NLCD 2019 operational mapping. Questions about the NLCD 2019 land cover product can be directed to the NLCD 2019 land cover mapping team at USGS EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov. See included spatial metadata for more details.
Limin Yang, Suming Jin, Patrick Danielson, Collin Homer, Leila Gass, Stacie M. Bender, Adam Case, Catherine Costello, Jon Dewitz, Joyce Fry, Michelle Funk, Brian Granneman, Greg C. Liknes, Matthew Rigge, George Xian, A new generation of the United States National Land Cover Database: Requirements, research priorities, design, and implementation strategies, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Volume 146, 2018, Pages 108-123, ISSN 0924-2716, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2018.09.006.
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