EnviroAtlas -- Chicago, IL -- Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) Data (2013)

The Chicago, IL EnviroAtlas Meter-scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) dataset comprises 14,687 km2 around the city of Chicago and surrounding counties in Illinois and Indiana. The study area spans 10 counties (7 in Illinois, 3 in Indiana). These MULC data and maps were derived from LiDAR and 1-m pixel, four-band (red, green, blue, and near-infrared) leaf-on aerial photography acquired from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) as well as ancillary vector data (e.g., roads, building footprints). Seven land cover classes were mapped: Water, Impervious Surfaces, Soil/Barren, Trees/Forest, Grass/Herbaceous Non-Woody Vegetation, Agriculture, and Wetlands (Woody and Emergent). Wetlands were delineated using the best available existing wetlands data, which was a National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) layer. An analysis of 600 completely random and 97 stratified random photo-interpreted land cover reference points yielded a simple overall user's accuracy (MAX) of 81% and an overall fuzzy user's accuracy (RIGHT) of 87% (see confusion matrices below). This dataset was produced by the University of Vermont Spatial Analysis Laboratory, the United States Forest Service Urban Tree Canopy (UTC) assessment program, and the US EPA to support research and online mapping activities related to EnviroAtlas. EnviroAtlas (https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas) allows the user to interact with a web-based, easy-to-use, mapping application to view and analyze multiple ecosystem services for the contiguous United States. The dataset is available as downloadable data (https://edg.epa.gov/data/Public/ORD/EnviroAtlas) or as an EnviroAtlas map service. Additional descriptive information about each attribute in this dataset can be found in its associated EnviroAtlas Fact Sheet (https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas/enviroatlas-fact-sheets).

Data and Resources

Field Value
access_constraints ["Use Constraints: None. Please check sources, scale, accuracy, currency and other available information. Please confirm that you are using the most recent copy of both data and metadata. Acknowledgement of the EPA would be appreciated.", "Access Constraints: None."]
bbox-east-long -86.478828
bbox-north-lat 42.505488
bbox-south-lat 41.150614
bbox-west-long -88.71481
contact-email EnviroAtlas@epa.gov
coupled-resource []
dataset-reference-date [{"type": "publication", "value": "2017-03-02"}]
frequency-of-update asNeeded
licence ["https://edg.epa.gov/EPA_Data_License.html"]
licence_url https://edg.epa.gov/EPA_Data_License.html
metadata-date 2020-10-16
metadata-language eng; USA
metadata_type geospatial
progress completed
resource-type dataset
responsible-party [{"name": "U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development-Sustainable and Healthy Communities Research Program, EnviroAtlas", "roles": ["pointOfContact"]}]
spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-88.71481, 41.150614], [-86.478828, 41.150614], [-86.478828, 42.505488], [-88.71481, 42.505488], [-88.71481, 41.150614]]]}
spatial_harvester true
Groups
  • AmeriGEOSS
  • National Provider
  • North America
Tags
  • agriculture
  • amerigeo
  • amerigeoss
  • biophysical
  • chicago
  • ckan
  • communities
  • ecosystem
  • ecosystem-services
  • enviroatlas
  • environment
  • environmental-atlas
  • geo
  • geoss
  • green-space
  • il
  • illinois
  • indiana
  • land
  • land-cover
  • national
  • north-america
  • surface-water
  • united-states
  • water
  • wetlands
isopen False
metadata_created 2025-11-20T13:55:41.079044
metadata_modified 2025-11-20T13:55:41.079047
notes The Chicago, IL EnviroAtlas Meter-scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) dataset comprises 14,687 km2 around the city of Chicago and surrounding counties in Illinois and Indiana. The study area spans 10 counties (7 in Illinois, 3 in Indiana). These MULC data and maps were derived from LiDAR and 1-m pixel, four-band (red, green, blue, and near-infrared) leaf-on aerial photography acquired from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) as well as ancillary vector data (e.g., roads, building footprints). Seven land cover classes were mapped: Water, Impervious Surfaces, Soil/Barren, Trees/Forest, Grass/Herbaceous Non-Woody Vegetation, Agriculture, and Wetlands (Woody and Emergent). Wetlands were delineated using the best available existing wetlands data, which was a National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) layer. An analysis of 600 completely random and 97 stratified random photo-interpreted land cover reference points yielded a simple overall user's accuracy (MAX) of 81% and an overall fuzzy user's accuracy (RIGHT) of 87% (see confusion matrices below). This dataset was produced by the University of Vermont Spatial Analysis Laboratory, the United States Forest Service Urban Tree Canopy (UTC) assessment program, and the US EPA to support research and online mapping activities related to EnviroAtlas. EnviroAtlas (https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas) allows the user to interact with a web-based, easy-to-use, mapping application to view and analyze multiple ecosystem services for the contiguous United States. The dataset is available as downloadable data (https://edg.epa.gov/data/Public/ORD/EnviroAtlas) or as an EnviroAtlas map service. Additional descriptive information about each attribute in this dataset can be found in its associated EnviroAtlas Fact Sheet (https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas/enviroatlas-fact-sheets).
num_resources 4
num_tags 26
title EnviroAtlas -- Chicago, IL -- Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) Data (2013)