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).