Supplemental_Information:
Land Use and Land Cover Classification Modified Anderson Classification Category Definitions October 30, 1998
1.0 WATER - area covered by water, snow, or ice with less than 25% vegetated or developed cover, unless specifically included in another category.
1.1 Open Water - all areas of open water with less than 25% vegetative or developed cover.
1.11 Stream/river - a natural body of flowing water. Includes streams and rivers that have been channelized in order to control flooding or erosion or to maintain flow for navigation.
1.12 Canal/ditch - a man-made open waterway constructed to transport water, to irrigate or drain land, to connect two or more bodies of water, or to serve as a waterway for water craft.
1.121 Lined canal/ditch - a canal or ditch lined with concrete or other impervious material preventing passage of water into underlying strata
1.122 Unlined canal/ditch - a canal or ditch constructed with dirt or other porous material allowing water to drain.
1.13 Lake/pond - a non-flowing, naturally-existing, body of water. Includes water impounded by natural occurrences and artificially regulated natural lakes. The delineation of a lake is based on the areal extent of water at the time the imagery was acquired.
1.14 Reservoir - any artificial body of water, unless specifically included in another category. It can lie in a natural basin or a man-constructed basin. The delineation of a reservoir is based on the areal extent of water at the time the imagery was acquired. (The water control structures are classified as Communications/Utilities.)
1.15 Bay/estuary - the inlets or arms of the sea that extend inland.
1.16 Sea/ocean - an area of the great body of salt water that covers much of the earth.
1.2 Perennial Ice/Snow - areas covered year-round with snow and ice.
1.21 Snowfield - permanent snow not underlain by a glacier.
1.22 Glacier - a body of ice and snow, showing evidence of past or present flow.
2.0 DEVELOPED - Areas of the earth which have been improved by man. Includes all "built-up" and urban areas of the landscape. Does NOT include mining lands, crop lands, or waste-disposal areas (dumps). This land use category takes precedence over a land cover category when the criteria for more than one category are met.
2.1 Residential - lands containing structures used for human habitation.
2.11 Single-family Residential - Lands used for housing residents in single-family dwelling units. Includes trailer parks, mobile home parks, and entire "farmsteads" when there is a home in the complex. ( If no home is in the complex, it should be classified as Agricultural Business.) Single-family residential buildings located within another category, such as military family housing, should be identified in this category.
2.12 Multi-family Residential - All lands devoted to housing more than one family on a permanent or semi-permanent basis, group living situations, and their associated grounds. Includes apartments, apartment complexes, duplexes, triplexes, attached row houses, condominiums, retirement homes, nursing homes, and residential hotels. Residential buildings located within another category, such as barracks and dormitories, should be identified in this category when possible, (except residential buildings within convents and monasteries - include these with Institutional).
2.2 Non-residential Developed - Any "developed" area or feature which is used for a purpose other than habitation.
2.21 Commercial/Light Industry - structures and associated grounds used for the sale of products and services, for business, or for light industrial activities. Includes all retail and wholesale operations. Include "industrial parks" and other features which cannot be clearly classified as either a retail service or light industry, such as heavy equipment yards, machinery repair, and junkyards.
2.211 Major Retail - This category includes shopping malls, retail "outlet centers", and "superstores" which draw clientele from a regional area. Major retail centers consist of extremely large single buildings or a complex of large buildings and their parking lots. Malls usually house one or two major department stores and numerous small retail stores. Includes outlet centers, "superstores", multi-plex movie theaters, and huge warehouse-type stores. The structures themselves are often several acres in size and have extensive parking lots.
2.212 Mixed/Minor Retail and Services - Includes individual stores and services of various sizes and associated grounds and parking. Includes neighborhood strip malls and shopping centers, veterinarian services, small movie theaters, gas stations and auto repair shops, garden centers, motels, small auto dealerships, public parking lots, lumber yards, art galleries, farm supply stores, flea-markets, bars and restaurants, grocery stores, and commercial "truck stops". Many small office buildings will have no features to distinguish them from retail stores and will fall in this category.
2.213 Office - structures and their associated grounds and parking, which provide financial, professional, administrative, and informational type services. Includes administrative government offices (e.g., IRS and State Motor Vehicles offices) trade schools, professional medical office complexes, research facilities/centers, and banks. Usually only office buildings in office complexes or in downtown areas will be distinguishable as offices. Small, single-story office buildings may blend in with minor retail.
2.214 Light industry - structures and their associated grounds and facilities which are used primarily to produce or process some finished product; or as a wholesale distribution center. Activities include design, assembly, finishing, packaging, warehousing or shipping of products rather than processing raw materials. The materials used in light industry have generally been processed at least once. They are generally "clean" industries which do not produce lots of waste materials. Use this category as a default for those facilities with semi-truck and trailer activity around loading docks, but that cannot be classified as either retail services or heavy industry. Includes electronic firms, clothing and furniture manufacture, grain elevators, printing plants, commercial bakeries, shipping and distribution centers, sand/gravel sorting facilities, secondary buildings associated with a mining or quarrying site, and generic warehouses.
2.22 Heavy Industry - structures and their associated grounds used for heavy fabrication, manufacturing and assembling parts which are, in themselves, large and heavy; or for processing raw materials such as iron ore, timber, and animal products. Accumulated raw materials are subject to treatment by mechanical, chemical, or heat processing to render them suitable for further processing, or to produce materials from which finished products are created. Heavy industries generally require large amounts of energy and raw materials and produce a significant amount of waste products. Indicators of heavy industry may be stockpiles of raw materials, energy producing sources and fuels, waste disposal areas and ponds, transportation facilities capable of handling heavy materials, smokestacks, furnaces, tanks, and extremely large buildings which are complex in outline and roof structure. Include associated waste piles and waste ponds. Heavy industry is usually located away from residential areas. Includes steel mills, paper mills, lumber mills, cotton gins, chemical plants, cement and brick plants, smelters, rock crushing machinery, and ore-processing facilities associated with mining.
2.221 Petro-chemical Refinery - structures and all associated equipment and grounds used for processing petro-chemicals. Include associated waste ponds.
2.23 Communications and Utilities - structures or facilities and associated grounds used for the generation and transfer of power and communications, the treatment or storage of drinking water, waste management, flood control, or the distribution and storage of gas and oil not associated with a unique feature. Includes pumping stations (oil, gas, or water), tank farms, power plants, electric substations, sewage treatment facilities and ponds, garbage collection facilities (not the final dumping ground - these are included in Bare), dams, levees, and spillways of appropriate dimensions, filtration plants, and heavy concentrations of antennas or satellite dishes; along with the related operational buildings.
2.24 Institutional - specialized government or private features which meet the educational, religious, medical, governmental, protective, and correctional needs of the public. Parking lots and associated grounds are included with these features. Includes public and private schools (not day care), state capitols, city halls, courthouses, libraries, churches, convents, monasteries, hospitals and training hospitals, post offices, police and fire departments, prisons, and military bases. Only the military-business areas of a military base are classified here; residential, airport, athletic fields, and vegetated areas are classified in the appropriate category.
2.241 Schools/Universities - public and private schools, seminaries, university campuses, and associated lands. Include the entire "core campus" area, along with athletic fields and vegetated areas. This category does not include day care centers or commercial trade schools, both of which are commercial uses.
2.242 Cemeteries - structures and lands devoted to burial of the dead. Includes mausoleums, service areas, and parking lots.
2.25 Agricultural Business - structures and all associated grounds used for raising plants or animals for food or fiber. Includes fish farms and hatcheries, feedlots, poultry farms, dairy farms, temporary shipping and holding pens, animal breeding or training facilities, and greenhouses. (Farmsteads including a dwelling are classified as residential, not Agricultural Business.)
2.251 Aquaculture site - a set of pools of water and related structures used for producing fish, shellfish, or aquatic plants.
2.252 Confined feeding operation - structures and associated pens, storage facilities, waste areas, and ponds which are used for raising meat and dairy cattle, hogs, poultry, or other animals. These features must have a relatively permanent and high animal population density. Temporary holding pens and thoroughbred horse farms usually do not qualify.
2.26 Transportation - Roads, railroads, airports, port facilities, and their associated lands. Roads and railroads include the right-of-way, interchanges, and median strips. Category includes railroad stations, railroad yards, bus stations, highway maintenance yards, school bus parking and service yards, and park-and-ride lots. Port facilities include loading and unloading facilities, docks, locks and, temporary storage areas. Associated warehousing and transfer stations for truck or rail are included only if they appear to be an integral part of the airport or port facility. Nearby but separate warehouses will be classified as light industry.
2.261 Airport - Includes the maintained active and overrun areas of the runways, landing strips, and taxiways, with the intervening land; along with the plane tie-down areas, terminals, hangers, related fuel storage facilities, service buildings, parking lots, navigation aids, and airport offices. Rental car lots integrated with the airport should be included with the airport.
2.27 Entertainment and Recreational - areas and structures used predominantly for athletic or artistic events, or for leisure activities, and all associated lands and developed parking areas. Includes outdoor amphitheaters, drive-in theaters, campgrounds, zoos, sports arenas (including indoor arenas), developed parks and playgrounds, community recreation centers, museums, amusement parks, public swimming pools, fairgrounds, and ski complexes (not the ski slopes). Marinas with over 25% of water surface covered by docks and boats are included here.
2.271 Golf Course - structures, associated grounds, driving ranges, and interspersed natural areas used for the game of golf.
2.272 Urban Parks - developed open space in urban settings used for outdoor recreation. Include grass fields and associated structures, parking lots, and facilities. Includes city parks, "green-belt" urban parks, and athletic fields not associated with a school. Does not include undeveloped "open space" on the periphery of urban areas or undeveloped regional, state, or national park areas.
2.3 Mixed Urban - developed areas which have such a mixture of residential and non- residential features where no single feature meets the minimum mapping unit specification. This category is used when more than one-third of the features in an area do not fit into a single category. Often applicable in the central, urban-core area of cities.
3.0 BARE - undeveloped areas of the earth not covered by water which exhibit less than 25% vegetative cover or less than 5% vegetative cover if in an arid area. The earth's surface may be composed of bare soil, rock, sand, gravel, salt deposits, or mud.
3.1 Transitional Bare - areas dynamically changing from one land cover/land use to another, often because of land use activities. Includes all construction areas, areas transitioning between forest and agricultural land, and urban renewal areas which are in a state of transition.
3.2 Quarries/Strip Mines/Gravel Pits - areas of extractive mining activities with significant surface disturbance. Vegetative cover and overburden are removed for the extraction of deposits such as coal, iron ore, limestone, copper, sand and gravel, or building and decorative stone. Current mining activity does not need to be identifiable. Inactive or unreclaimed mines and pits are included in this category until another land cover or land use has been established. Includes strip mines, open-pit mines, quarries, borrow pits, oil and gas drilling sites, and gravel pits with their associated structures, waste dumps, and stockpiles.
3.3 Bare Rock/Sand - includes bare bedrock, natural sand beaches, sand bars, deserts, desert pavement, scarps, talus, slides, lava, and glacial debris.
3.4 Flats - A level landform composed of unconsolidated sediments of mud, sand, gravel, or salt deposits. Includes coastal tidal flats and interior desert basin flats and playas.
3.5 Disposal - designated areas where refuse is dumped or exists, such as landfills, trash dumps, or hazardous-waste disposal sites. Reclaimed disposal areas or those covered with vegetation do not qualify.
4.0 VEGETATED - areas having generally 25% or more of the land or water with vegetation. Arid or semi-arid areas may have as little as 5% vegetation cover.
4.1 Woody Vegetation - land with at least 25% tree and (or) shrub canopy cover.
4.11 Forested - land where trees form at least 25% of the canopy cover.
4.111 Deciduous Forest - area dominated by trees where 75% or more of the canopy cover can be determined to be trees which loose all their leaves for a specific season of the year.
4.112 Evergreen Forest - area dominated by trees where 75% or more of the canopy cover can be determined to be trees which maintain their leaves all year.
4.113 Mixed Forest - areas dominated by trees where neither deciduous nor evergreen species represent more than 75% of the canopy cover.
4.12 Shrub land - areas where trees have less than 25% canopy cover and the existing vegetation is dominated by plants that have persistent woody stems, a relatively low growth habit, and which generally produce several basal shoots instead of a single shoot. Includes true shrubs, trees that are small or stunted because of environmental conditions, desert scrub, and chaparral. In the eastern US, include former cropland or pasture lands which are now covered by brush to the extent that they are no longer identifiable or usable as cropland or pasture. Clear-cut areas will exhibit a stage of shrub cover during the regrowth cycle. Some common species which would be classified as shrub land are mountain mahogany, sagebrush, and scrub oaks.
4.121 Deciduous Shrub land - areas where 75% or more of the land cover can be determined to be shrubs which loose all their leaves for a specific season of the year
4.122 Evergreen Shrub land - areas where 75% or more of the land cover can be determined to be shrubs which keep their leaves year round.
4.123 Mixed Shrub land - areas dominated by shrubs where neither deciduous nor evergreen species represent more than 75% of the land cover
4.124 Desert Scrub - land areas predominantly in arid and semi-arid portions of the southwestern U.S. Existing vegetation is sparse and often covers only 5-25% of the land. Example species include sagebrush, creosote, saltbush, greasewood, cactus.
4.13 Planted/Cultivated Woody (Orchards/Vineyards/Groves) - areas containing plantings of evenly spaced trees, shrubs, bushes, or other cultivated climbing plants usually supported and arranged evenly in rows. Includes orchards, groves, vineyards, cranberry bogs, berry vines, and hops. Includes tree plantations planted for the production of fruit, nuts, Christmas tree farms, and commercial tree nurseries. Exclude pine plantations and other lumber or pulp wood plantings which will be classified as Forest.
4.131 Irrigated Planted/Cultivated Woody - orchards, groves, or vineyards where a visible irrigation system is in place to supply water.
4.2 Herbaceous Vegetation - areas dominated by non-woody plants such as grasses, forbs, ferns and weeds, either native, naturalized, or planted. Trees must account for less than 25% canopy cover while herbaceous plants dominate all existing vegetation.
4.21 Natural Herbaceous - areas dominated by native or naturalized grasses, forbs, ferns and weeds. It can be managed, maintained, or improved for ecological purposes such as weed/brush control or soil erosion. Includes vegetated vacant lots and areas where it cannot be determined whether the vegetation was planted or cultivated such as in areas of dispersed grazing by feral or domesticated animals. Includes landscapes dominated by grass-like plants such as bunch grasses, palouse grass, palmetto prairie areas, and tundra vegetation, as well as true prairie grasses.
4.211 Natural Grasslands - natural areas dominated by true grasses. Includes undisturbed tall-grass and short-grass prairie in the Great Plains of the U.S.
4.22 Planted/Cultivated Herbaceous - areas of herbaceous vegetation planted and/or cultivated by humans for agronomic purposes in developed settings. The majority of vegetation in these areas is planted and/or maintained for the production of food, feed, fiber, pasture, or seed. Temporarily flooded are included in this category. Do not include harvested areas of naturally occurring plants such as wild rice and cattails.
4.221 Fallow/Bare Fields - areas within planted or cultivated regions that have been tilled or plowed and do not exhibit any visible vegetation cover.
4.222 Small Grains - areas used for the production of grain crops such as wheat, oats, barley, graham, and rice. Category is difficult to distinguish from cultivated grasses grown for hay and pasture. Indicators of small grains may be a less than 10% slope, annual plowing and seeding, distinctive field patterns and sizes, different timing of green-up and harvest, different harvesting practices, a very "even" texture and tone, or regional variations discovered during field checks.
4.2221 Irrigated Small Grains - areas used for the production of small grain crops where a visible irrigation system is in place to supply water including the flooding of entire fields. Category includes rice fields.
4.223 Row Crops - areas used for the production of crops or plants such as corn, soybeans, vegetables, tobacco, flowers and cotton. Fields which exhibit characteristics similar to row crops, but that do not have any other distinguishing features for a more specific category may be included.
4.2231 Irrigated Row Crops - areas used for the production of row crops where a visible irrigation system is in place to supply water.
4.224 Cultivated grasses - areas of herbaceous vegetation, including perennial grasses, legumes, or grass-legume mixtures that are planted by humans and used for erosion control, for seed or hay crops, for grazing animals, or for landscaping purposes
4.2241 Pasture/Hay - areas of cultivated perennial grasses and/or legumes (e.g., alfalfa) used for grazing livestock or for seed or hay crops. Pasture lands can have a wide range of cultivation levels. It can be managed by seeding, fertilizing, application of herbicides, plowing, mowing, or baling. Pasture land has often been cleared of trees and shrubs, is generally on steeper slopes than cropland, is intended to graze animals at a higher density than open rangeland, and is often fenced and divided into smaller parcels than rangeland or cropland. Hay fields may be more mottled than small grain fields as they are not plowed annually and may be harvested and baled two or three times a year in some locations.
4.22411 Irrigated Pasture/Hay - areas used as pasture or hay fields where a visible irrigation system is in place to supply water.
4.2242 Other planted grasses - areas of other cultivated grass such as turf and sod farms and grasses planted for erosion control.
4.22421 Irrigated other grasses - areas of other cultivated grasses where a visible irrigation system is in place to supply water.
4.225 Irrigated Planted Herbaceous - land which is growing some indistinguishable crop or grass, but is obviously irrigated.
4.3 Vegetated Wetland - areas where the water table is at, near, or above the land surface for a significant part of most years and indicative of this covers more than 25% of the land surface. Wetlands can include marshes, swamps situated on the shallow margins of bays, lakes, ponds, streams, or reservoirs; wet meadows or perched bogs in high mountain valleys, or seasonally wet or flooded low spots or basins. Do not include agricultural land which is flooded for cultivation purposes.
4.31 Woody Wetland - areas dominated by woody vegetation. Includes seasonally flooded bottom land, mangrove swamps, shrub swamps, and wooded swamps including those around bogs. Wooded swamps and southern flood plains contain primarily cypress, tupelo, oaks, and red maple. Central and northern flood plains are dominated by cottonwoods, ash, alder, and willow. Flood plains of the Southwest may be dominated by mesquite, saltcedar, seepwillow, and arrowweed. Northern bogs typically contain tamarack or larch, black spruce, and heath shrubs. Shrub swamp vegetation includes alder, willow, and buttonbush.
4.32 Emergent Herbaceous Wetlands - areas dominated by wetland herbaceous vegetation which is present for most of the growing season. Includes fresh-water, brackish-water, and salt-water marshes, tidal marshes, mountain meadows, wet prairies, and open bogs.
0.0 OUTSIDE OF MAPPED AREA