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Annual NLCD (National Land Cover Database)—The Next Generation of Land Cover Mapping

Fact Sheet 2025-3001
By:
https://doi.org/10.3133/fs20253001

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Introduction 

The widely used National Land Cover Database (NLCD) has long been the foundational land cover source for scientists, resource managers, and decision makers across the United States.

In 2024, a reinvention as Annual NLCD added the key improvement of annual time steps to show decades of change at a higher frequency than the intervals of 2–3 years used in the legacy NLCD. Annual NLCD was derived primarily from the long Landsat satellite data record, and it includes data from other sources.

The first release in 2024 of Annual NLCD provides Collection 1.0 of products encompassing land cover and land change from 1985 through 2023 for the conterminous United States (CONUS). The Annual NLCD Collection 1.0 consists of six operational products that map the unique characteristics of land cover. A map created from Annual NLCD shows 16 land cover classes for the CONUS in 2023.

Suggested Citation

U.S. Geological Survey, 2025, Annual NLCD (National Land Cover Database)—The next generation of land cover mapping: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2025–3001, 4 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/fs20253001.

ISSN: 2327-6932 (online)

ISSN: 2327-6916 (print)

Table of Contents

  • Introduction
  • Why do we need Annual NLCD?
  • What are the foundational elements of Annual NLCD?
  • Who produces Annual NLCD?
  • What does Annual NLCD provide?
  • What are some examples of NLCD’s usefulness?
  • How is accuracy determined for Annual NLCD?
  • What’s different from the legacy NLCD?
  • References Cited
  • For more information
Publication type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Title Annual NLCD (National Land Cover Database)—The next generation of land cover mapping
Series title Fact Sheet
Series number 2025-3001
DOI 10.3133/fs20253001
Year Published 2025
Language English
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Publisher location Reston, VA
Contributing office(s) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center
Description Report: 4 p.; Data release
Online Only (Y/N) N
Additional Online Files (Y/N) N
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
Additional publication details