What are Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) Files?

The Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) data files describe the vegetation, water, natural surface, and cultural features on the land surface. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) provides these data sets and associated maps as a part of its National Mapping Program. The LULC mapping program is designed so that standard topographic maps of a scale of 1:250,000 can be used for compilation and organization of the land use and land cover data. In some cases, such as Hawaii, 1:100,000 scale maps are also used.

There are two sources of LULC coverages available through Internet. The USGS provides these coverages, in a Geographic Information Retrieval Analysis System (GIRAS) format. These coverages are projected in a "modified" Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) system. The second source is through the EPA. These coverages are the same as the USGS, but hey are projected in Albers.

For a procedure on how to import the EPA land use files into ArcInfo, see the AML entitled Land Use/Land Cover Files.


Go to USGS LULC Web Site

Go to EPA LULC Web Site

Go to Obtaining Hydrologc Data through the Internet .