National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2001 Land Cover Conterminous United States (ver. 2.0, July 2024)

Disclaimer: this is an historic version of NLCD provided for research and citation purposes. Different release dates of NLCD cannot be used with other release dates for correct analysis. Each release of NLCD generates a complete set of directly comparable products. These products must be used together for correct analysis.  You can find the latest suite of synced products at www.mrlc.gov. 

The National Land Cover Database 2001 land cover layer for mapping zones 01-66 was produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. The MRLC Consortium is a partnership of federal agencies (www.mrlc.gov), consisting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). One of the primary goals of the project is to generate a current, consistent, seamless, and accurate National Land cover Database (NLCD) circa 2001 for the United States at medium spatial resolution. For a detailed definition and discussion on MRLC and the NLCD 2001 products, refer to Homer et al. (2004) and http://www.mrlc.gov/mrlc2k.asp. The NLCD 2001 is created by partitioning the U.S. into mapping zones. A total of 66 mapping zones were delineated within the conterminous U.S. based on ecoregion and geographical characteristics, edge matching features and the size requirement of Landsat mosaics. An example is mapping zone 01 which encompasses whole or portions of several states, including the state of Washington. Questions about the NLCD mapping zones can be directed to the NLCD 2001 land cover mapping team at the USGS/EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov.