Land Cover Trends Dataset, 1973–2000

Authors

Christopher E. Soulard
William Acevedo
Roger F. Auch
Terry L. Sohl
Mark A. Drummond
Benjamin M. Sleeter
Daniel G. Sorenson
Steve Kambly
Tamara S. Wilson
Janis L. Taylor
Kristi L. Sayler
Michael P. Stier
Christopher A. Barnes
Steve C. Methven
Thomas R. Loveland
Rachel Headley
Mark S. Brooks

Date of this Version

2000

Citation

http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ds844 ISSN 2331-1258 (online)

Comments

U.S. government work

Abstract

The U.S. Geological Survey Land Cover Trends Project is releasing a 1973–2000 time-series land-use/land-cover dataset for the conterminous United States. The dataset contains 5 dates of land-use/land-cover data for 2,688 sample blocks randomly selected within 84 ecological regions. The nominal dates of the land-use/land-cover maps are 1973, 1980, 1986, 1992, and 2000. The land-use/land-cover maps were classified manually from Landsat Multispectral Scanner, Thematic Mapper, and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus imagery using a modified Anderson Level I classification scheme. The resulting land-use/land-cover data has a 60-meter resolution and the projection is set to Albers Equal-Area Conic, North American Datum of 1983. The files are labeled using a standard file naming convention that contains the number of the ecoregion, sample block, and Landsat year. The downloadable files are organized by ecoregion, and are available in the ERDAS IMAGINETM (.img) raster file format.