Geoecology: Historical U.S. County Environmental Baseline (1941-1981)

Geoecology is a compilation of county-level environmental data for the conterminous United States. It provides a historical baseline from 1941 to 1981, covering terrain, soils, water, forestry, vegetation, agriculture, land use, wildlife, air quality, climate, natural areas, and endangered species, complemented by selected human population characteristics. The dataset is maintained by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Use Cases

• Analyzing long-term trends in climate indicators like precipitation and temperature indices at the county level.
• Studying historical land use and land cover classification changes alongside agricultural and forestry data.
• Modeling baseline conditions for endangered species populations and their habitat interactions.
• Correlating historical air quality metrics, such as sulfur oxides, with energy production and use data.
• Investigating relationships between soil classification, water resources, and agricultural yields over a 40-year period.

Strengths

• Provides a 40-year temporal coverage (1941-1981) for analyzing environmental change.
• Offers a multi-faceted view by integrating ecological, climatic, and human demographic data at a consistent county-level geography.
• Its presence on multiple authoritative platforms (Data.gov and NASA Earthdata) signals importance and curation.

Limitations

• Critical details like row count, specific column names, and exact file size are unavailable from all sources.
• There is a conflict in the 'last updated' metadata, with one source listing 2026 and another 1981, casting doubt on maintenance status.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified', requiring further investigation for reuse.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Compilation of selected environmental and complementary human population data.

Time Range

1941 to 1981

Freshness

2026-03-13 02:16:44.364132

Geography

Conterminous United States at the county level.