2.2.4 Geographic context
Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) data for North Carolina in 2001 and 2019
were compiled from the National Land Cover Database created by the
Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium (MRLC). LULC categories
were consolidated into “Developed”, “Barren”, “Cultivated”,
“Vegetated”, and “Wetlands” classes (Table S1) and summarized for
each coastal watershed, defined by USGS 12 digit Hydrologic Unit Codes
(HUC12; Figure 3).