The 1996 Impervious layer is a modified version of the National Land Cover Database 2001 Impervious dataset for mapping zone 1 (Washington). A change detection between 1996 and 2001 Landsat TM data identified areas that were not impervious in 1996. These non-impervious areas were masked out of the impervious estimate. The original impervious dataset was produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. The MRLC Consortium is a partnership of federal agencies (www.mrlc.gov), consisting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). One of the primary goals of the project is to generate a current, consistent, seamless, and accurate National Land Cover Database (NLCD) circa 2001 for the United States at medium spatial resolution. For a detailed definition and discussion on MRLC and the NLCD 2001 products, refer to Homer et al. (2003) and <http://www.mrlc.gov/mrlc2k.asp>.
The NLCD 2001 was created by partitioning the U.S. into mapping zones. A total of 66 mapping zones were delineated within the conterminous U.S. based on ecoregion and geographical characteristics, edgematching features and the size requirement of Landsat mosaics. Mapping zone 1 encompasses the Western portion of Washington. Questions about the NLCD mapping zone 1 can be directed to the NLCD 2001 land cover mapping team at the USGS EROS Data Center (EDC), Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov.
