LBA Regional Boundary for the Legal Amazon of Brazil, 8-km

An 8-kilometer resolution geospatial mask defines the Legal Amazon of Brazil, encompassing nine states as established by Brazilian law in 1991. The mask was generated by Christopher Potter at NASA Ames Research Center in 1999 from the Digital Chart of the World. It is available in ASCII GRID format and serves as a foundational boundary for environmental and land-use studies in the region.

Use Cases

• Delineating study areas for deforestation analysis based on the official Legal Amazon boundary.
• Masking satellite imagery or other geospatial data to focus on the nine-state Amazon region.
• Providing a consistent spatial reference for policy compliance monitoring related to Amazonian land use.

Strengths

• Based on an official legal definition from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
• Created by a named researcher at a major research institution (NASA Ames Research Center).
• Available on multiple platforms, indicating established use and importance.

Limitations

• The dataset's spatial resolution (8-km) is coarse for local-scale analysis.
• Metadata on datagov lists a 2026 update date, which conflicts with the 1999 creation date from the description, suggesting potential metadata errors.
• Specific column names and the exact grid dimensions are not provided in the available metadata.

Provenance

Source

Christopher Potter, Ecosystem Science and Technology Branch, Earth Science Division, NASA Ames Research Center.

Collection Method

Generated from the Digital Chart of the World (ESRI).

Time Range

1999

Freshness

1999-12-31 23:59:59.999000

Geography

Legal Amazon of Brazil, covering the states of Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima, Mato Grosso, Maranhão, and Tocantins.