Summary

Description

The USGS Land Cover service from The National Map (TNM) consists of NLCD 1992, 2001, 2006, and 2011, which are National Land Cover Database (NLCD) classification schemes based primarily on Landsat satellite data along with ancillary data sources, such as topography, census and agricultural statistics, soil characteristics, wetlands, and other land cover maps. NLCD 1992 is a 21-class land cover classification scheme that has been applied consistently across the conterminous U.S. at a spatial resolution of 30 meters. NLCD 2001 is a 16-class land cover classification scheme that also has been applied to the conterminous U.S. at a spatial resolution of 30 meters, and includes Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. NLCD 2006 quantified land cover change for the conterminous U.S. between the years 2001 to 2006. Generation of NLCD 2006 helped identify and correct issues in the 2001 land cover and impervious surface products only, and no changes were made to the 2001 canopy product. NLCD 2011 is the most recent national land cover product based primarily on a decision-tree classification of 2011 Landsat satellite data. The National Map viewer allows free downloads of public domain, 30-meter resolution land cover data by 3x3 degree tiles in GeoTIFF format for the United States and Puerto Rico. For additional information on land cover products, go to http://www.mrlc.gov.