USGS National Land Cover Database (NLCD)

The National Land Cover Database (NLCD) offers comprehensive, nationwide land cover data at a 30-meter resolution, using Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery. It provides detailed information on characteristics like thematic classes (urban, agriculture, forest), impervious surfaces, and tree canopy cover. NLCD uses real-time data and supports a range of applications, including ecosystem health assessment, biodiversity mapping, climate change prediction, and land management policy development. Created by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium, led by the U.S. Geological Survey, NLCD data is freely available to the public.

NLCD Land Cover Types

• Forest

• Water

• Wetlands

• Barren

• Herbaceous

• Shrubland

• Perennial Ice/Snow

• Developed

• Planted/Cultivated