The Annual NLCD land cover change product represents the nature of land cover change from one product year to the next.
Annual NLCD land cover change product shows the change between the title year’s land cover and the prior year’s land cover when there is a change in class.
The Annual NLCD land cover change product represents annual land cover change between one product year and the next, with those changes represented in the latter year (e.g., differences in land cover between 1985 and 1986 are shown in the 1986 land cover change product). These differences are represented categorically in the product data by concatenating the before and after land cover class codes.
Strategies to reduce land cover change commission are harmonized with the land cover product, such that the land cover change product always represents the difference between land cover products, without any additional filtering. As such, this product can be independently derived by the user from successive land cover maps but is provided in the product suite as a convenience.
Annual NLCD Land Cover Change Legend
| Class\ Value | Description |
| 11 - 95 | Pixels with no change will retain their NLCD class value |
| AABB | Change is shown by a concatenation of previous and current class values |
| 9590 | Example from Emergent Herbaceous Wetlands to Woody Wetlands |
| 7182 | Example from Grassland/Herbaceous to Cultivated Crops |
| 8123 | Example from Pasture/Hay to Developed, Medium Intensity |
Data Access
Information about data access is available on the USGS Annual NLCD Data Access page.
Documents
Additional information on Annual NLCD and Annual NLCD science products can be found in the Science User Product Guide.
Annual NLCD Citation Information
Annual NLCD has no restrictions on the use of science products. Annual NLCD does ask that if you use the data as part of a publication or presentation that use the following citation below; however, it is not a requirement to use the data.
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), 2024, Annual NLCD Collection 1 Science Products:
U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P94UXNTS
