Map

Land Cover 30m, 2015 (Landsat and RapidEye)

Map type: Terrestrial Ecosystems

This map of North American land cover at a spatial resolution of 30 meters provides a harmonized view of the physical cover of Earth’s surface across the continent based on 2015 Landsat satellite imagery for Canada and the United States, and RapidEye imagery for Mexico.

Nineteen Level II land cover classes were defined using the Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) standard developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

The North American Land Change Monitoring System (NALCMS)  is a joint initiative between Natural Resources Canada (NRCan)’s Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation (CCMEO), the United States Geological Survey (USGS), and three Mexican organizations: the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía—INEGI), the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad—Conabio), and the National Forestry Commission (Comisión Nacional Forestal—Conafor), and supported by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC).

Disclaimer

NALCMS map 2010 at 30 meters Edition 2 shows updated land cover information derived from Landsat imagery over Alaska, Canada and the Conterminous United States. Mexico’s land cover information derived from Landsat remains as in Edition 1. NALCMS map 2015 derives land cover information from Landsat imagery over Alaska, Canada and the Conterminous United States; and RapidEye over Mexico. Changes are not meant to be assessed from map comparison over Mexico between 2010 and 2015. Mexico’s land cover classification in 2015 is presented as an improvement of the previous 2010 map, therefore it represents a new base line map for Mexico that shall not be compared with the previous map to assess change detection. An official 2010-2015 land cover change map is available here.

Version 3 of the North America Land Cover map replaces data over Canada based on an update of the Canadian dataset released on May 01, 2023.