Launch of the Rangeland Condition, Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection (RCMAP) Project and New Generation of Rangeland Fractional Components | Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium

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The USGS and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are pleased to announce the launch of the Rangeland Condition Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection (RCMAP) project whose flagship product is a fractional component time-series. These data have been previously referred to by several names including “BIT”, “shrub-grass layers”, etc. The RCAMP time-series has been extended to 2020 using improved image composites, change detection, and inclusion of BLM Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring (AIM) data. We have added two additional components in the current generation; perennial herbaceous and non-sagebrush shrub, in addition to the 6 components mapped previously; shrub, sagebrush, herbaceous, annual herbaceous, litter, and bare ground. The new generation of RCMAP data will be available for static download on and on the Rangelands Viewer in a few short weeks. Once the new generation is uploaded, the previous version of the time-series data will be archived at: https://doi.org/10.5066/P9C9O66W

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RCMAP time series product display

RCMAP 1985-2023 Fractional Component Time-Series Now Available

Published Jan 19, 2024

The RCMAP product suite includes 10 components: annual herbaceous, bare ground, herbaceous, litter, non-sagebrush shrub, perennial herbaceous, sagebrush, shrub, tree, and shrub height. Data characterize the percentage of each 30-meter pixel in the Western United States covered by each component for each year from 1985-2023 - providing change information for 39 years. Because of file size limitations, individual years of component cover data are packaged in three time intervals including 1985-1996, 1997-2008, and 2009-2023. Perennial herb and non-sagebrush shrub are derivatives of herbaceous and annual herbaceous cover, and shrub and sagebrush cover, respectively.

NLCD 2021 Land Cover

NLCD 2021 Now Available

Published Jul 20, 2023

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in association with the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium, is pleased to announce the completion and release of the latest epoch of the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) for the conterminous U.S.—NLCD 2021. The MRLC, a consortium of federal agencies who coordinate and generate consistent and relevant land cover information at the national scale for a wide variety of environmental, land management, and modeling applications, have been providing the scientific community with detailed land cover products for more than 30 years. Over that time, NLCD has been one of the most widely used geospatial datasets in the U.S., serving as a basis for understanding the Nation’s landscapes in thousands of studies and applications, trusted by scientists, land managers, students, city planners, and many more as a definitive source of U.S. land cover.

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Enhanced Visualization and Analysis (EVA) Tool Now Available

Published Mar 25, 2021

The MRLC Consortium, in collaboration with NOAA and the USGS, is pleased to release version 2 of the Enhanced Visualization and Analysis (EVA) tool. This tool provides users with detailed county statistics for any two NLCD landcover dates to support quick and powerful change analyses. This tool was originally developed by NOAA and shared through the consortium with custom adaptations for NLCD.

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