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Landscape Change Monitoring System (LCMS) is a remote sensing-based system for mapping and monitoring landscape change across the United States.

Who: LCMS is produced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service Geospatial Technology and Applications Center (GTAC).

What: Annual data layers of

Vegetation cover Change
Land Cover
Land Use

When: 1985 to 2023

Where: Conterminous U.S. (CONUS), Southeastern Alaska (SEAK), Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands (PRUSVI), and Hawaiʻi (HI)*

*Coming summer 2024

Map of LCMS Change Loss output across the U.S.

Fast & Slow Loss Year

1985

2023

APPLICATIONS

Monitor annual change

Vegetation cover changes caused by short and long-duration disturbance events

Map of LCMS Change Loss and Gain output across the U.S.

Fast & Slow Loss Year

1985

2023

Gain Year

1985

2023

Example area showing LCMS Change over Colorado

Slow Loss
Fast Loss
Gain

Changes from insects, disease, and wildfire, Colo.

Example area showing LCMS Change over Oregon

Slow Loss
Fast Loss
Gain

Vegetation change largely caused by timber harvest and wildfire in the Willamette National Forest, Oreg.

Monitor annual land cover changes

Surface components of the land that are present and visible

Map of LCMS Land Cover output across the U.S.

Trees
Tall Shrubs- Trees
Shrubs-Trees
Grass- Trees
Barren- Trees
Tall Shrubs
Shrubs
Grass- Shrubs
Barren- Shrubs
Grass
Barren- Grass
Barren or Impervious
Snow or Ice
Water

Example area showing LCMS land cover changing over Lake Mead

Change in Lake Mead water level, Nev. caused by water consumption & decadal drought

Example area showing LCMS land cover changing over the Columbia Glacier

Change in extent of the Columbia Glacier, Alaska

Monitor annual land use changes

Intended human use of the land that represents economic and cultural activities practiced at a given place

Map of LCMS Land Use output across the U.S.

Agriculture
Developed
Forest
Non-Forest Wetland
Other
Rangeland

Example area showing LCMS land use changing over Atlanta

Urban development of Atlanta, Ga.

Example area showing LCMS land use changing over Las Vegas

Urban development of Las Vegas, Nev.

DATA DESCRIPTIONS

Name

Description

Example

Change

Change classes represent the most recent state of vegetation cover change

Fast Loss: Vegetation cover loss caused by short-duration events. For example, a fire or harvest that causes rapid vegetation cover change.
Slow Loss: Vegetation cover loss caused by long-duration events. For example, mountain pine beetle-caused mortality in Rocky Mountain forests.
Gain: Vegetation cover growth after a loss of vegetation cover. For example, new growth of tree saplings following a fire o r harvest.
Stable: Where no significant change is evident in the spectral response and the trend is essentially flat. Agricultural systems and wetlands are commonly highly variable spectrally through time, and are thus considered stable but ephemeral.

For additional information about LCMS change classes see the LCMS methods document

Example map of LCMS Loss over California

Land Cover

Land cover classes represent the vegetation or other biophysical attributes of the land surface

Trees
Tall Shrubs-Trees (Alaska only)
Shrubs-Trees
Grass-Trees
Barren-Trees
Tall-Shrub (Alaska only)
Shrubs

Grass-Shrubs
Barren-Shrubs
Grass
Barren-Grass
Barren-Impervious
Snow or ice
Water

For additional information about LCMS land cover classes see the LCMS methods document

Example area showing LCMS land cover changing over the Great Salt Lake

Land Use

Land use classes represent how biophysical attributes are intended to be used by humans

Agriculture
Developed
Forest

Non-forest Wetland
Other
Rangeland or Pasture

For additional information about LCMS land use classes see the LCMS methods document

Example area showing LCMS land use changing over Denver

Explore LCMS Data

Several web mapping applications are available to explore, summarize, and produce reports of how our landscape is changing.

Data Explorer

Become familiar with LCMS data and explore landscape changes in a highly interactive environment

Data Dashboard

See summaries of how landscapes are changing and generate reports

LCMS in Motion

Discover our changing landscape through animation

Additional LCMS data exploration tools

Base Learner Explorer

Explore the raw input data used to create the final LCMS products. This app is useful to gain insight into the strengths and weaknesses of two popular temporal segmentation methods used in LCMS.

Insects and Disease Explorer

Explore how LCMS relates to the Forest Service Insects and Disease Survey (IDS) dataset.

DOWNLOAD

Click on the folders to download annual LCMS data

Conterminous United States (v2023.9)
- Change
  - Summary
  - Annual
- Land Cover
- Land Use
- QA Bits
- LCMS CONUS methods document
Southeastern Alaska (v2023.9)
- Change
  - Summary
  - Annual
- Land Cover
- Land Use
- QA Bits
- LCMS SEAK methods document
Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands (v2022.8)
- Change
  - Summary
  - Annual
- Land Cover
- Land Use
- LCMS PRUSVI methods document

ABOUT

Knowing where, when, and what factors create change across landscapes is critical to making sound land management decisions. To support land managers and scientists with this need, an interagency effort between leading remote sensing scientists and application specialists in the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, U.S. Geological Survey, NASA, and numerous universities have collaborated to develop and produce a Landscape Change Monitoring System (LCMS).

LCMS is a remote sensing-based system for mapping and monitoring landscape change across the United States. LCMS provides a “best available” map of landscape change that leverages advances in time series-based change detection techniques, Landsat and Sentinel data availability, cloud-based computing power, and big data analysis methods.

The LCMS Science Team initially developed LCMS methods (Cohen et al., 2018; Healey et al., 2018). The LCMS Production Team and Science Team annually review methods to ensure the LCMS mapping process is based on the best available science. All LCMS map products are recreated annually from 1985 to the most recent full growing season. LCMS mapping areas include all the United States and its territories. The current operational set of outputs covers the conterminous United States (CONUS), southeastern Alaska (SEAK) and Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands (PRUSVI). Future mapping efforts will extend to Hawaiʻi.

Literature

Healey et al 2018

Cohen et al 2017

Cohen et al 2018

LCMS Methods

LCMS CONUS & SEAK methods document

LCMS PRUSVI methods document

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