Dataset Information

Gridded land use data for the conterminous United States 1940-2015.

ABSTRACT: Multiple aspects of our society are reflected in how we have transformed land through time. However, limited availability of historical-spatial data at fine granularity have hindered our ability to advance our understanding of the ways in which land was developed over the long-term. Using a proprietary, national housing and property database, which is a result of large-scale, industry-fuelled data harmonization efforts, we created publicly available sequences of gridded surfaces that describe built land use progression in the conterminous United States at fine spatial (i.e., 250 m × 250 m) and temporal resolution (i.e., 1 year - 5 years) between the years 1940 and 2015. There are six land use classes represented in the data product: agricultural, commercial, industrial, residential-owned, residential-income, and recreational facilities, as well as complimentary uncertainty layers informing the users about quantifiable components of data uncertainty. The datasets are part of the Historical Settlement Data Compilation for the U.S. (HISDAC-US) and enable the creation of new knowledge of long-term land use dynamics, opening novel avenues of inquiry across multiple fields of study.

SUBMITTER: Mc Shane C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9376068 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Gridded land use data for the conterminous United States 1940-2015.

Mc Shane Caitlín C Uhl Johannes H JH Leyk Stefan S

Scientific data 20220813 1

Multiple aspects of our society are reflected in how we have transformed land through time. However, limited availability of historical-spatial data at fine granularity have hindered our ability to advance our understanding of the ways in which land was developed over the long-term. Using a proprietary, national housing and property database, which is a result of large-scale, industry-fuelled data harmonization efforts, we created publicly available sequences of gridded surfaces that describe bu ...[more]

PMID: 35963932

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Project description:The National Land Cover Database (NLCD) is an operational land cover monitoring program providing updated land cover and related information for the United States at five-year intervals. NLCD2016 extends temporal coverage to 15 years (2001 - 2016). We collected land cover reference data for the 2011 and 2016 nominal dates to report land cover accuracy for the NLCD2016 database 2011 and 2016 land cover components at Level II and Level I and for Level I 2011 - 2016 land cover change using two definitions of agreement. For both the 2011 and 2016 land cover components, single-date Level II overall accuracies (OA) were 72% (standard error of ± 0.9%) when agreement was defined as match between the map label and primary reference label only and 86% (± 0.7%) when agreement also included the alternate reference label. The corresponding level I OA for both dates were 79% (± 0.9%) and 91% (± 1.0%). The 2011 - 2016 user's and producer's accuracies (UA and PA) were ~75% for forest loss and PA for water loss, grassland loss, and grass gain were > 70% when agreement included a match between the map label and either the primary or alternate reference label. Depending on agreement definition and level of the classification hierarchy, OA for the 2011 land cover component of the NLCD2016 database was about 4% to 7% higher than OA for the 2011 land cover component of the NLCD2011 database, suggesting that the changes in mapping methodologies initiated for production of the NLCD2016 database have led to improved product quality. Additionally, we used the reference dataset collected for assessment of the NLCD2011 database to assess the 2001 and 2006 land cover components of the NLCD2016 database. OA for the 2001 and 2006 land cover components was 1% - 5% lower than OA for the 2011 and 2016 land cover components of the NLCD2016 database. Higher OA for 2011 and 2016 land cover components of the NLCD2016 database relative to OA for its 2001 and 2006 components may be attributable to differences in reference data quality.

Project description:Watershed integrity is the capacity of a watershed to support and maintain the full range of ecological processes and functions essential to sustainability. Using information from EPA's StreamCat dataset, we calculated and mapped an Index of Watershed Integrity (IWI) for 2.6 million watersheds in the conterminous US with first-order approximations of relationships between stressors and six watershed functions: hydrologic regulation, regulation of water chemistry, sediment regulation, hydrologic connectivity, temperature regulation, and habitat provision. Results show high integrity in the western US, intermediate integrity in the southern and eastern US, and the lowest integrity in the temperate plains and lower Mississippi Valley. Correlation between the six functional components was high (r = 0.85-0.98). A related Index of Catchment Integrity (ICI) was developed using local drainages of individual stream segments (i.e., excluding upstream information). We evaluated the ability of the IWI and ICI to predict six continuous site-level indicators with regression analyses - three biological indicators and principal components derived from water quality, habitat, and combined water quality and habitat variables - using data from EPA's National Rivers and Streams Assessment. Relationships were highly significant, but the IWI only accounted for 1-12% of the variation in the four biological and habitat variables. The IWI accounted for over 25% of the variation in the water quality and combined principal components nationally, and 32-39% in the Northern and Southern Appalachians. We also used multinomial logistic regression to compare the IWI with the categorical forms of the three biological indicators. Results were consistent: we found positive associations but modest results. We compared how the IWI and ICI predicted the water quality PC relative to agricultural and urban land use. The IWI or ICI are the best predictors of the water quality PC for the CONUS and six of the nine ecoregions, but they only perform marginally better than agriculture in most instances. However, results suggest that agriculture would not be appropriate in all parts of the country, and the index is meant to be responsive to all stressors. The IWI in its present form (available through the StreamCat website; https://www.epa.gov/national-aquatic-resource-surveys/streamcat) could be useful for management efforts at multiple scales, especially when combined with information on site condition. The IWI could be improved by incorporating empirical or literature-derived relationships between functional components and stressors. However, limitations concerning the absence of data for certain stressors should be considered.

Dataset Information

Gridded land use data for the conterminous United States 1940-2015.

Publications

Gridded land use data for the conterminous United States 1940-2015.

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