Land Cover Classification and NLCD
Land cover classification is the process of identifying and categorizing the physical materials that cover the Earth's surface, such as forests, water bodies, and urban areas. This classification is essential for understanding environmental changes, managing natural resources, and making informed policy decisions. One of the most widely used tools for land cover classification is the National Land Cover Database (NLCD), which provides detailed land cover data for the United States. The NLCD uses satellite imagery and remote sensing technology to create consistent and accurate land cover maps. These maps help scientists and policymakers track changes in land use over time, assess the impacts of human activities, and develop strategies for sustainable resource management.
Since 1972, Landsat satellites have continuously acquired images of the Earth’s land surface, providing uninterrupted data to help land managers and policymakers make informed decisions about natural resources and the environment. Data acquired by Landsat satellites are distributed from the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Landsat Continuity has always been central to the program’s success.
This includes (1) maintaining historic sensor compatibility to support long-term time series analyses, (2) ensuring consistent image quality to reduce uncertainties in land surface measurements, and (3) evolving satellite observations and data products to meet changing priorities and national needs. Landsat Collections are tiered management structures that ensure all Landsat Level-1 products are produced to create a consistent archive of known data quality Landsat Level-2 and Level-3 Science Products, along with U.S. Analysis Ready Data (ARD), contain higher-level data to allow scientists to better document changes to Earth's terrestrial environment.
There is a wealth of technical information and statistics about the Landsat Project, Landsat data, and Landsat science products. Statistics about Landsat data availability, distribution and usage are updated quarterly. Explore project documents about policy, data, systems and more Discover project statistics about the USGS Landsat data archive Learn about the Landsat Ground Network Stations (LGN) Find the latest news about Landsat missions, data products, data access, and related topics.
Read all Landsat Mission Headlines Subscribe to the Latest in Landsat Newsletter Subscribe to Landsat Headlines RSS Feeds Landsat data products are continually being matured into the highest quality possible. These products allow scientists to provide improved and more useful results for land change and use analysis.
Key Points
- Land cover classification is the process of identifying and categorizing the physical material at the land surface of Earth, such as flora, concrete, built structures, bare ground, and temporary water.
Terms
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Sources & licensing(4)
- U.S. Geological Survey — www.usgs.gov/landsat-missions (U.S. Government work (public domain, 17 U.S.C. 105))
- NASA Earthdata — www.earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/earth-observation-data-basics (U.S. Government work (public domain, 17 U.S.C. 105))
- Wikipedia contributors — en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_cover (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0)
- Wikipedia contributors — en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Nepal (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0)