USA Annual NLCD - Land Cover Confidence

Beta Notice: This item is currently in [beta] and is intended for early access, testing, and feedback. It is not recommended for production use, as functionality and content are subject to change without notice. In some areas a pixel's land cover class is more difficult to determine than in other areas. This annual time-enabled service of the National Land Cover Database gives a percent confidence that each pixel in the NLCD is the class the annual NLCD layer says it is. Use this layer with the [USA Annual - Land Cover layer]. The Annual NLCD layers are produced using supervised classification with a series of deep learning models. Part of the output of these models is a probability value for a pixel's output land cover class. Keep in mind that probability values are an expression of confidence. Values are not calibrated and should not be understood as an absolute likelihood that the land cover class given is correct. Additional information about these annual NLCD layers may be found in the [USGS Science Product User Guide]. Dataset Summary Phenomenon Mapped: Percent confidence accompanying each pixel's NLCD land cover class. Geographic Extent: Contiguous USA (lower 48 states + DC) Mosaic Projection: Albers Equal Area Conic, on WGS84 spheroid (AEA_WGS84) Data Coordinate System: Albers Equal Area Conic, on WGS84 spheroid (AEA_WGS84) Cell Size: 30 meters Pixel Depth: 8 Bit Unsigned Source Type: Thematic Time Extent: Annually 1985-2024 Analysis: [Analysis-Optimized] Update Frequency: Annually Source: National Land Cover Database, Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium Data Vintage: Version 1.1, June 25, 2025 Publication Date: 2025 What can you do with this layer? Reduce influence of less certain land cover types in models Apply transparency to land cover to make it less strong where a land cover status is less certain Identify the certainty of a particular pixel's land cover status Analysis * In order to leverage the optimization for analysis, the capability must be enabled by your ArcGIS organization administrator. More information on enabling this feature can be found in the ‘Regional data hosting’ section of this help doc. * Optimized for analysis means this layer does not have size constraints for analysis and it is recommended for multisource analysis with other layers optimized for analysis. See the [ArcGIS Living Atlas: Analysis-Optimized Imagery Layers Group] for a complete list of imagery layers optimized for analysis Processing Templates Blue to Ochre Percent Confidence Renderer - A stretched ramp converted to a color ramp which shows less confident places in grays and light oranges and the most confident places in deep blue. Grayscale Percent Confidence Renderer - Displays more confident places in light gray and less confident places in dark gray. There are a few pixels that are greater than 100 percent confidence due to extrapolation and these appear in dark gray also. Values 0-100 Only Grayscale Renderer - Displays more confident places in light gray and less confident places in dark gray. There are a few pixels that are greater than 100 percent confidence due to extrapolation and in this renderer those values are converted to nodata. Questions? Please leave a comment below if you have a question about this layer, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.