Thematic accuracy of the 1992 National Land-Cover Data for the western United States

The MultiResolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) consortium sponsored production of the National Land Cover Data (NLCD) for the conterminous United States, using Landsat imagery collected on a target year of 1992 (1992 NLCD). Here we report the thematic accuracy of the 1992 NLCD for the six western mapping regions. Reference data were collected in each region for a probability sample of pixels stratified by map land-cover class. Results are reported for each of the six mapping regions with agreement defined as a match between the primary or alternate reference land-cover label and a mode class of the mapped 3×3 block of pixels centered on the sample pixel. Overall accuracy at Anderson Level II was low and variable across the regions, ranging from 38% for the Midwest to 70% for the Southwest. Overall accuracy at Anderson Level I was higher and more consistent across the regions, ranging from 82% to 85% for five of the six regions, but only 74% for the South-central region.