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Cooperative Land Cover, Version 3.7 - published November 2023

The Florida Cooperative Land Cover Map (CLC) is a partnership between the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and Florida Natural Areas Inventory (FNAI) to develop ecologically-based statewide land cover from existing sources and expert review of aerial photography. The CLC is primarily funded by the Florida’s State Wildlife Grants program in support of The Florida State Wildlife Action Plan which identified improved habitat mapping as a priority data gap.

Beginning with the release of CLC v3.0, the Cooperative Land Cover Map will be revised continuously, with new versions released annually. FWC will now take lead on updating and maintaining the Cooperative Land Cover map. FNAI will continue to provide guidance for the classification of natural communities, and site specific data sources based on their mapping and revision efforts. The CLC follows the Florida Land Cover Classification System.

 

Cooperative Land Cover, Version 3.7 - published November 2023

GIS Data Downloads

The statewide Cooperative Land Cover Map, Version 3.7 is available either as a File Geodatabase Feature Class or 10m Raster Dataset. Note that the feature class download may be slow due to its large size.

Zipped Polygons (~900 MB)  

Zipped Raster (~375 MB)

Cooperative Land Cover v3.7 Metadata

The CLC map uses the Florida Land Cover Classification System to classify land cover types. The Florida Land Cover Classification System is a single-statewide classification system designed to focus on conserving “Priority Habitats” throughout Florida. The classification scheme incorporates classifications used by Florida Natural Areas Inventory (FNAI), the water management districts (WMDs), and the FWC. 

Download the Classification Scheme and Class Definitions Report. Data are intended to be used for general informational and planning purposes and not appropriate for legal, regulatory and/or cadastral purposes. Additionally due to the inconsistencies in available aerial imagery and resource limitations the entire state is not reclassified on a regular time interval; therefore the authors of this data do not recommend comparing previous CLC iterations to denote any temporal changes in land use / landcover.

Check out Florida's State Wildlife Action Plan and find detailed descriptions for 45 terrestrial, freshwater, and marine habitats throughout Florida. 

Learn how land cover mapping supports habitat conservation at the FWC.

Major updates from version 3.6 to 3.7

  • Overall revisions to classes were conducted to correct for boundary errors, mislabeled classes, and hard edges between classes.
  • The addition of updated data for 6 managed lands. This data is from 2022 mapping efforts. In this version a few SITE level classifications are reclassified for the STATE level classification system. Mesic Flatwoods and Scrubby Flatwoods are classified as Dry Flatwoods at the STATE level. Upland Glade is classified as Barren, Sinkhole, and Outcrop Communities at the STATE level. Lastly Upland Pine is classified as High Pine and Scrub at the STATE level.
  • CLC v3.7 utilizes the updated The Florida Land Cover Classification System (2018).

Contact Information

Feedback from users of the data is welcome, and users are encouraged to report data errors to landcovermap@myfwc.com.