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North American Environmental Atlas

Mapping Our Shared Environment

The North American Environmental Atlas combines and harmonizes geospatial data from Canada, Mexico and the United States to allow for a continental and regional perspective on environmental issues that cross boundaries. It is a unique tool to analyze and raise awareness of our shared environment and ecosystems across the continent, to demonstrate their value, and to help us see what needs to be done to protect them.

The dozens of map layers of the Atlas are unique in that they harmonize geographic information across North America’s political boundaries. By comparing these map layers, we can better understand and quantify critical trends and interrelationships at the North American level.

Explore this interactive story for a better understanding of how the Atlas can be useful to you.

Explore more than one thousand publications and articles that utilized data from the North American Environmental Atlas.

North American Environmental Atlas

Keywords

Map Type

Map Files

CEC Atlas Map

North American Blue Carbon, 2021

2021
Climate, Protected Areas

The North American Blue Carbon map shows the distribution of salt marsh, mangrove, and seagrass habitats in North America.

CEC Atlas Map

Land Cover Change 30m, 2010-2015 (Landsat)

2020
Land Cover

This map demonstrates land cover change between 2010 and 2015 in North America at a spatial resolution of 30 meters.

CEC Atlas Map

Land Cover 30m, 2015 (Landsat and RapidEye)

2020
Land Cover

This map of North American land cover at a spatial resolution of 30 meters provides a harmonized view of the physical cover of Earth's surface across the continent based on 2015 Landsat satellite imagery for Canada and the United States, and RapidEye imagery for Mexico.

CEC Atlas Map

Land Cover, 2010 (Landsat, 30m)

2020
Land Cover

This map of North American land cover at a spatial resolution of 30 meters provides a harmonized view of the physical cover of Earth's surface across the continent based on 2010 Landsat satellite imagery.

CEC Atlas Map

Land Cover, 2010 (MODIS, 250m)

2013
Land Cover

This map of North American land cover at a spatial resolution of 250 meters provides a harmonized view of the physical cover of Earth's surface across the continent based on 2010 Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite imagery.

CEC Atlas Map

Land Cover, 2005 (MODIS, 250m)

2013
Land Cover

This map of North American land cover at a spatial resolution of 250 meters provides a harmonized view of the physical cover of Earth's surface across the continent based on 2005 Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite imagery.

CEC Atlas Map

Land Cover Change, 2005-2010 (MODIS, 250m)

2013
Land Cover

This map demonstrates land cover change between 2005 and 2010 in North America at a spatial resolution of 250 meters.

CEC Atlas Map

North American Power Plant Air Emissions, 2005

2012
Climate, Pollutants

The North American Power Plants map displays over 3,000 power-generating facilities using fossil fuel sources in 2005.

CEC Atlas Map

Airports, 2011

2012
Humans, Transportation

This North American Environmental Atlas base layer shows airports (excluding heliports and seaplane bases) of North America at 1:10,000,000 scale.

Tools

Publications

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