About Annual NLCD
Notice to users: The Annual NLCD product release is planned for late October 2024. At that time further content, such as product documentation and full access to data products, will become available and referenced from this site.
Improving information on the characteristics of land cover, understanding the basic drivers of change, and identifying of potential consequences of change on human and natural systems can empower greater insight into the impacts and feedback of human activity, climate change, and other drivers. To meet its needs, the geospatial community has called for a new generation of monitoring data and information as input for many applications. Land use land cover (LULC) and land change products need to span larger geographic extents, over longer time periods, at higher spatial resolutions, and provide more systematic and consistent information on change than ever before. To help meet growing user demands, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) has developed the Annual National Land Cover Database (NLCD) Collection 1.0 Science Products.
Annual NLCD Objectives:
- Perform annual monitoring of national land cover and land change (historic and current)
- Create, validate, and distribute map products
- Establish provenance and documentation, transparency, and openness
- Use continuous R&D to enhance change detection, augment classification, reduce latency, and add improvements
- Assess causes and consequences of change through time (assessments, projections)
Legacy NLCD:
Since 1992, the NLCD has characterized land cover and land cover change nationwide through processing the Landsat satellite record of the Earth. Legacy NLCD provides data at 30-meter spatial resolution, spatial reference, and descriptive data for characteristics of the land surface such as thematic class (e.g., urban, agriculture, and forest), percent impervious surface, and percent tree canopy cover. In earlier releases, NLCD has included map products across nine epochs from 2001 to 2021 (2001, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021).
New Collection of Annual NLCD Products
Scientists at the Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center have developed an integrated science framework to deliver annual land cover and land-cover change products with similar spatial and thematic characteristics as legacy, multi-year USGS LULC products. To provide the most relevant land cover and land cover change information for the Nation, mapped land cover (and derived products) should involve regular repeated production, updating and improvement based on robust research, and validation of land cover and land cover change.
Annual NLCD involves a new methodology using an ensemble of chained deep learning models and harmonic time series analysis. This method supports the creation of validated annual land cover and related products crossing nearly 4 decades and updated on an annual basis. Starting in 2024, USGS is producing an annual record of land cover and fractional impervious surface for the conterminous U.S. initially covering the period from 1985 to 2023. An annual update frequency is planned to be rolled out in 2025. Products for other regions, such as Alaska and Hawaii, will follow in future years.
Back to the Annual NLCD landing page.
Notice to users: The Annual NLCD product release is planned for late October 2024. At that time further content, such as product documentation and full access to data products, will become available and referenced from this site.
Improving information on the characteristics of land cover, understanding the basic drivers of change, and identifying of potential consequences of change on human and natural systems can empower greater insight into the impacts and feedback of human activity, climate change, and other drivers. To meet its needs, the geospatial community has called for a new generation of monitoring data and information as input for many applications. Land use land cover (LULC) and land change products need to span larger geographic extents, over longer time periods, at higher spatial resolutions, and provide more systematic and consistent information on change than ever before. To help meet growing user demands, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) has developed the Annual National Land Cover Database (NLCD) Collection 1.0 Science Products.
Annual NLCD Objectives:
- Perform annual monitoring of national land cover and land change (historic and current)
- Create, validate, and distribute map products
- Establish provenance and documentation, transparency, and openness
- Use continuous R&D to enhance change detection, augment classification, reduce latency, and add improvements
- Assess causes and consequences of change through time (assessments, projections)
Legacy NLCD:
Since 1992, the NLCD has characterized land cover and land cover change nationwide through processing the Landsat satellite record of the Earth. Legacy NLCD provides data at 30-meter spatial resolution, spatial reference, and descriptive data for characteristics of the land surface such as thematic class (e.g., urban, agriculture, and forest), percent impervious surface, and percent tree canopy cover. In earlier releases, NLCD has included map products across nine epochs from 2001 to 2021 (2001, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021).
New Collection of Annual NLCD Products
Scientists at the Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center have developed an integrated science framework to deliver annual land cover and land-cover change products with similar spatial and thematic characteristics as legacy, multi-year USGS LULC products. To provide the most relevant land cover and land cover change information for the Nation, mapped land cover (and derived products) should involve regular repeated production, updating and improvement based on robust research, and validation of land cover and land cover change.
Annual NLCD involves a new methodology using an ensemble of chained deep learning models and harmonic time series analysis. This method supports the creation of validated annual land cover and related products crossing nearly 4 decades and updated on an annual basis. Starting in 2024, USGS is producing an annual record of land cover and fractional impervious surface for the conterminous U.S. initially covering the period from 1985 to 2023. An annual update frequency is planned to be rolled out in 2025. Products for other regions, such as Alaska and Hawaii, will follow in future years.
Back to the Annual NLCD landing page.