National Neighborhood Data Archive (NaNDA): Land Cover by Census Tract and ZIP Code Tabulation Area, United States, 1985- 2023

This dataset contains measures of land cover (e.g., low-, medium-, or high-densitydevelopment, forest, wetland, open water) derived from the National Land CoverDatabase (NLCD) and aggregated by US census tract or ZIP Code Tabulation Area(ZCTA) from 1985 through 2023. Land cover is measured both in total square metersand as a proportion of all land within the tract or ZCTA.<br><br>The dataset is organized into multiple files based on two key dimensions:<br><b>Geography</b> – Four separate files correspond to different geographic definitions (GIS shapefiles from the United States Census Bureau): Census Tract 2010Census Tract 2020ZIP Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA) 2010 ZIP Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA) 2020<b>Time Period</b> – To improve accessibility and accommodate users with limited computing power, the data is divided into five-year increments, with separate files for each period from 1984 to 2023.Information about selecting the appropriate dataset can be found in the Usage Notessection of this document.