{"id":521762,"date":"2019-06-10T07:01:34","date_gmt":"2019-06-10T14:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/?post_type=blog&p=521762"},"modified":"2019-06-18T12:19:14","modified_gmt":"2019-06-18T19:19:14","slug":"mapping-two-decades-of-landcover-change-in-the-u-s","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-living-atlas\/mapping\/mapping-two-decades-of-landcover-change-in-the-u-s","title":{"rendered":"Mapping Two Decades of Landcover Change in the U.S."},"author":7841,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":""},"categories":[22851,22941,22771],"tags":[25041,29601,26541,401302],"industry":[],"product":[36581],"class_list":["post-521762","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-government","category-mapping","category-natural-resources","tag-landsat","tag-nlcd","tag-usgs","tag-whats-new-june-2019","product-arcgis-living-atlas"],"acf":{"short_description":"An improved version of the NLCD is now available in the Living Atlas, providing the ability to map and analyze land use patterns since 2001. ","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

An improved version of the USGS\/MRLC National Land Cover Database in the Living Atlas, providing the ability to map and analyze land use patterns since 2001.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

It\u2019s no surprise to say that the landscape of U.S. has experienced dramatic changes in some areas since the beginning of the 21st Century \u2013 but it\u2019s been difficult to consistently quantify just how much things have changed.<\/p>\n

Until now.<\/p>\n

For years, the Living Atlas has included a few analyses from the National Land Cover Database, developed by the Multi-Resolution Land Cover Characteristics Consortium<\/a> (MRLC) \u2013 a group of federal agencies, led by the USGS, and tasked with using remote sensing to analyze land cover changes across the nation. However, there has not been a seamless timeseries of this data for detailed analysis. This year, MRLC released a timeseries of harmonized data, and this new generation of NLCD<\/a> is now available in the Living Atlas.<\/p>\n

Developing this new generation of NLCD was no trivial effort. It required reprocessing terabytes<\/a> of multi-spectral imagery from the USGS Landsat satellite missions for each year and applying the same methodology across the 2001-2016 analysis period. This reprocessing makes the data infinitely more usable, since individual years can be compared<\/strong>, unlike in previous versions.<\/p>\n

The results speak for themselves.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":{"ID":521802,"id":521802,"title":"LasVegas-LakeMead","filename":"LasVegas-LakeMead.gif","filesize":319626,"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2019\/06\/LasVegas-LakeMead.gif","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-living-atlas\/mapping\/mapping-two-decades-of-landcover-change-in-the-u-s\/lasvegas-lakemead","alt":"Change in Las Vegas-Lake Mead from 2001 to 2016","author":"7841","description":"","caption":"Changes in the urbanization of Las Vegas along with the decline in water levels of Lake Mead","name":"lasvegas-lakemead","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":521762,"date":"2019-06-08 20:37:28","modified":"2019-06-08 20:39:03","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/gif","type":"image","subtype":"gif","icon":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1125,"height":652,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2019\/06\/LasVegas-LakeMead-213x200.gif","thumbnail-width":213,"thumbnail-height":200,"medium":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2019\/06\/LasVegas-LakeMead.gif","medium-width":450,"medium-height":261,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2019\/06\/LasVegas-LakeMead.gif","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":445,"large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2019\/06\/LasVegas-LakeMead.gif","large-width":1125,"large-height":652,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2019\/06\/LasVegas-LakeMead.gif","1536x1536-width":1125,"1536x1536-height":652,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2019\/06\/LasVegas-LakeMead.gif","2048x2048-width":1125,"2048x2048-height":652,"card_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2019\/06\/LasVegas-LakeMead-802x465.gif","card_image-width":802,"card_image-height":465,"wide_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2019\/06\/LasVegas-LakeMead.gif","wide_image-width":1125,"wide_image-height":652}},"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

The rapid growth of Las Vegas over the last few decades is well known, as is the decline in water levels of nearby Lake Mead. However, this timeseries really puts the relationship into context. Notice the asynchronous expansion of the former and contraction of the latter in subsequent years.<\/p>\n

By isolating the Open Water classification for the two years we can see just how much Lake Mead changed:<\/p>\n