The National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) coordinates the monitoring of atmospheric deposition at numerous locations across North America. Collectively these individual sites are important components of five unique networks that directly measure atmospheric concentrations and deposition rates at site locations.  These observations provide point-source observations on parameters such as acidity content, nutrient levels, and deposition rates of important constituent’s such as mercury and ammonia. Regional and other large scale assessments involving atmospheric deposition often utilize land use or land cover as a parameter that controls

This investigation evaluates the Land Cover of active NADP sites located in the continental United States using the 2011 National Land Cover Database (NLCD).  The NLCD serves as the definitive Landsat-based, 30-meter resolution, land cover database for the US. NLCD provides spatial reference and descriptive data for characteristics of the land surface such as thematic class (for example, urban, agriculture, and forest), percent impervious surface, and percent tree canopy cover. The classification system used by NLCD2011 is modified from the Anderson Land Cover Classification System.

The analysis indicates that 19.8% (88 of 444) of the NADP active sites are located in areas classified as Pasture/Hay, which includes grasses, legumes, or grass-legume mixtures planted for livestock grazing or the production of seed or hay crops, typically on a perennial cycle. In addition the analysis evaluated land cover at a scale of 500-m for each site. This information is available to support future investigations related to interactions between land cover and deposition.