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The USGS Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection (LCMAP) initiative has released the first update to its Conterminous United States (CONUS) science products, adding two years of data to a satellite-derived product suite already-unparalleled in its temporal density.

LCMAP Collection 1.1 marks the first of two planned updates for calendar year 2021. The new collection extends LCMAP’s historical record of land cover and change to 34 years, characterizing the landscapes across CONUS at 30-meter resolution from 1985-2019. A planned fall release will add data for the year 2020.

Collection 1.1 widens the broad scope of scientific and research questions that can be investigated through LCMAP. The 10-product suite can be used to capture the dynamics of wetlands in growth or decline, investigate the ephemeral impacts of hurricanes or rapidly-shifting mining operations, track the pace of coastal erosion or urban growth, to monitor recovery from mudslides and wildfires, and much more.

LCMAP products can also serve as a complement to other USGS Landsat-based mapping efforts, such as the National Land Cover Database.

The LCMAP team at EROS was able to produce the additional data less than one year after the release of Collection 1 thanks in part to algorithm modifications and efficiency improvements that resulted in a 69% reduction in processing time for 35 years of data.

Collection 1.1 data are now available through EarthExplorer. In May, the new data will be added to and available through LCMAP’s interactive web viewer, alongside downloadable CONUS mosaics for each product. The results of a validation assessment of the new LCMAP Collection are also available through ScienceBase.

To learn more about LCMAP Collection 1.1, visit the product page.

Be sure to subscribe to the LCMAP listserv to keep up with product news and updates.

2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California Seen Through LCMAP Products
This graphic shows Landsat and Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection (LCMAP) post-fire images from Collection 1.1, with the fire boundary shown in yellow. Left: Landsat Analysis Ready Data acquired Dec 26, 2021, shown as a false color composite using short-wave infrared, near infrared, and red bands (Bands 6,5,4). The burn scar shows as a reddish brown. Middle: The Collection 1.1 LCMAP Annual Land Cover Change product shows land cover classification changes in purple. Right: The Collection 1.1 LCMAP Change Magnitude product shows the intensity of a time series model break (when spectral observations have diverged from the predicted values). Note that a spectral break that shows up in Change Magnitude does not necessarily correspond to a change in land cover. 

 

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