NLCD 2001 - nationwide land cover at 30-meter resolution
Written by Glenn Letham (GISuser editor)
23 January 2007
The Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium is a group of federal agencies who first joined together in 1993 (MRLC 1992) to purchase Landsat 5 imagery for the conterminous U.S. and to develop a land cover dataset called the National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD 1992). In 1999, a second-generation MRLC consortium was formed to purchase three dates of Landsat 7 imagery for the entire United States (MRLC 2001) and to coordinate the production of a comprehensive land cover database for the nation called the National Land Cover Database (NLCD 2001). These data are now available via FTP download.
Prior to download, users have a number of viewing options to get a glimpse of the data. A graphical query reveals a mapserver image of the area of interest; path/row query; list query (ie. list dataset); or view data products by reflectance characteristics.
About the MRLC Program Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics data are designed to meet the needs of Federal agencies for nationally consistent satellite remote sensing and land-cover information. Imagery and land cover data are now available for two time periods, the first with a nominal date of 1992, and the second with a nominal date of 2001. Data for each period are available for order or download.
Interested in Participating?
Agencies interested in becoming an MRLC consortium agency can contact the EROS Data Center MRLC Coordinator (
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
). The consortium welcomes additional federal and state partner agencies interested in assisting in either the population of the Landsat database or collaboration in developing the Land Cover database.
View data from the mapserver
Other groups or individuals can participate in the MRLC program by simply accessing the web site at http://www.mrlc.gov and researching, browsing or ordering data for the nominal cost of reproduction. Data are to be used only for non-commercial ventures.
HxGN Live - The Hexagon Global Network - Learn about surveying, mapping, laser scanning and geospatial solutions from Leica Geosystems. June 3-6, 2013, Las Vegas, Nevada
Join us at GIS for Government 2013 taking place June 24-26, 2013 in the Washington, DC Metro Area to find out everything you need to know about GIS. Click here for more information
To register for the first GCS Geospatial Big Data webinar, visit the new GCS website at www.YourDataSmarter.com. The one-hour free webinar will be broadcast live at 3 pm EDT Wed, June 12, 2013
The Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium is a group of federal agencies who first joined together in 1993 (MRLC 1992) to purchase Landsat 5 imagery for the conterminous U.S. and to develop a land cover dataset called the National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD 1992). In 1999, a second-generation MRLC consortium was formed to purchase three dates of Landsat 7 imagery for the entire United States (MRLC 2001) and to coordinate the production of a comprehensive land cover database for the nation called the National Land Cover Database (NLCD 2001). These data are now available via FTP download.
