USDA · USDA-019 · record R1325

Landscape Change Monitoring System (LCMS)

Department of Agriculture · Natural Resources and Environment

Overview

Development stage: DeployedSource: c) Deployed – The use case is being actively authorized or utilized to support the functions or mission of an agency.
High-impact designation: Not high-impactSource: c) Not high-impact
Impact justification: Not reported
Start date: 2016-01-15 (day precision)Source: 1/15/2016
Withheld from public reporting: Not reported

Mission

Topic area: Science
Operational functions: No function tag matched Derived by keyword rules; see methodology

Problem the AI is intended to solve

LCMS produces annual vegetation cover change, land cover, land use, and tree canopy cover data on National Forest System lands and more broadly across the conterminous United States, Alaska, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Hawaii from 1985 through present.

Expected benefits

Supporting agency priority initiatives such as quick and efficient monitoring of fire and fuels management across the landscape, documenting vegetation changes due to wildland and prescribed fire, tracking post-fire recovery and restoration work, maximizing the value of existing investments, reducing technical barriers, and improving mission outcomes.

System outputs

The model outputs predictions of tree canopy cover, vegetation gain, vegetation loss, land cover, and land uses.

Technology

AI classification: Classical / predictive MLSource: Classical/Predictive Machine Learning: Models trained on data to make predictions or classifications based on identified patterns or relatio…
System name(s): Not reported
Custom-developed code: No
Public source code: Not reported

Sourcing

How it was built: Developed in-houseSource: b) Developed in-house
Vendor (as reported): Not reported
Vendors (standardized): None on the standard list

A vendor is the supplier named by the agency. It does not identify the underlying model or AI technology.

Data and privacy

Involves PII: No
Privacy Impact Assessment: Not reported
Authorization to Operate: No
Demographic features: k) None of the above
Training and evaluation data: Training and evaluation data used includes 15,000 sample plots spanning from 1985-2024. Features of the dataset are land cover, land use, and change process categories.
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