The GEOECOLOGY Database is a compilation of environmental data for research and development needs that includes information for the period 1964 to 1979 (Olson et al. 1980). The data have been used for environmental assessment and planning for energy development requiring rapid access to data at appropriate spatial and temporal scales (Kitchings et al. 1976; Klopatek et al. 1979a, 1979b; Olson et al. 1982, 1983). The GEOECOLOGY Database contains selected data on terrain and soils, water resources, forestry, vegetation, agriculture, land use, wildlife, air quality, climate, natural areas, and endangered species. Data on selected human population characteristics are also included to complement the environmental files. Data represent the conterminous United States at the county level of resolution. These historical data are provided as a source of 1970s baseline environmental conditions for the United States.
The integrated database of diverse environmental resource information from extant sources was developed by the Environmental Sciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Olson et al. 1980). The GEOECOLOGY Database can be accessed by downloading the individual files as tab-delimited text (.txt) files. Sixty-six individual data sets listed below are available in the collection. Some data sets described in Olson et al. 1980 that were initially available are not included and are no longer available. County data sets have Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) numeric state and county codes that allow merging of the separate files. Some files, such as species dictionaries or point data, do not have FIPS identifiers. Data are stored in metric-SI units. The GEOECOLOGY technical memorandum (Olson et al. 1980) is provided as a PDF file; it serves as both documentation and a user's guide to the GEOECOLOGY Database, giving general information on the data set contents, source of data, and specific variable descriptions.
Cite this data set as follows:
Olson, R. J., C. J. Emerson, and M. K. Nungesser. 2003. GEOECOLOGY: County-Level Environmental Data for the United States, 1964-1979. Data set. Available on-line [http://www.daac.ornl.gov] from Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, U.S.A. doi:10.3334/ORNLDAAC/656.
Kitchings, T., S. Anderson, and R. J. Olson. 1976. Biogeographic Information System for Animal Species in the Southeastern United States. ASB Bulletin 23(3):149-154.
Klopatek, J. M., J. T. Kitchings, R. J. Olson, K. D. Kumar, and L. K. Mann. 1979a. A hierarchical system for evaluating regional ecological resources. Biological Conservation 20(4):271-290.
Klopatek, J. M., R. J. Olson, C. J. Emerson, and J. L. Jones. 1979b. Land-use conflicts with natural vegetation in the United States. Environmental Conservation 6:191-199.
Olson, R. J., C. J. Emerson, and M. K. Nungesser. 1980. GEOECOLOGY: A County-Level Environmental Data Base for the Conterminous United States. ORNL/TM-7351. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Olson, R. J., K. D. Kumar, and R. L. Burgess. 1982. Analyses of Ecoregions Utilizing the Geoecology Data Base. pp. 149-156. In: In-Place Resource Inventories: Principles and Practices, Society of American Foresters.
Olson, R. J., J. M. Klopatek, and C. J. Emerson. 1983. Regional environmental analysis and assessment utilizing the Geoecology Data Base. pp. 102-118. In: E. Teicholz and B. J. L. Berry (eds.), Computer Graphics and Environmental Planning, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
Abbreviations and acronyms used in the Data file contents column are defined in the GEOECOLOGY technical memorandum (Olson et al. 1980) that is provided as a PDF companion file. Please note that if a data set described in Olson et al. 1980 is not listed in this table, the data set is no longer available.
| Data type / File name | Data file contents | Year | Region | Area |
| AGRICULTURE | ||||
| A04 | CROP PLANTED-HARVESTED AREAS AND YIELDS | 1975 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| A04 | CROP REPORTING DISTRICT INDEX | 1975 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| A05 | 1978 CROP AREAS AND YIELDS, AG LAND USE | 1978 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| BASE DATA | ||||
| B01 | COUNTY CODES, NAMES AND CENTROIDS | 1970 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| B02 | STATE NAMES AND INDICES (EPA, BBS, NOAA) | 1970 | U.S. | STATES |
| B03 | AIR(AQCR) AND WATER(WRC-SA) INDICES | 1975 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| B08 | GENERAL REGIONAL INDICES | 1970-1975 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| CLIMATE | ||||
| C07 | MONTHLY AVERAGE TEMPERATURES BY COUNTY | 1941-1970 | EAST | COUNTY |
| C08 | MONTHLY AVERAGE PRECIPITATION BY COUNTY | 1941-1970 | EAST | COUNTY |
| C09 | MONTHLY POTENTIAL EVAPORATION BY COUNTY | 1941-1970 | EAST | COUNTY |
| C10 | MONTHLY MOISTURE INDEX BY COUNTY | 1941-1970 | EAST | COUNTY |
| C11 | MONTHLY AVERAGE TEMPERATURES BY DIVISION | 1941-1970 | U.S. | SCD |
| C12 | MONTHLY MAXIMUM TEMPERATURES BY DIVISION | 1941-1970 | U.S. | SCD |
| C13 | MONTHLY MINIMUM TEMPERATURES BY DIVISION | 1941-1970 | U.S. | SCD |
| C14 | MONTHLY AVERAGE PRECIPITATION BY DIVISION | 1941-1970 | U.S. | SCD |
| C15 | MONTHLY MAXIMUM PRECIPITATION BY DIVISION | 1941-1970 | U.S. | SCD |
| C16 | MONTHLY MINIMUM PRECIPITATION BY DIVISION | 1941-1970 | U.S. | SCD |
| C17 | CLIMATIC DIVISION INDEX | 1970 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| C18 | GROWING SEASON LENGTH, FIRST/LAST FROST | 1978 | EAST | COUNTY |
| C19 | STATE CLIMATIC.DIVISION NAMES/WEIGHTS | 1975 | U.S. | SCD |
| C20 | RAINFALL PH & H ION LOADINGS | 1974 | EAST | COUNTY |
| C21 | INVERSION DAY PROBABILITIES | U.S. | COUNTY | |
| VEGETATION | ||||
| D03 | POT. & ADJ. VEGETATION NATIONAL STATS | 1966-1967 | U.S. | |
| D04 | POT. & ADJ. VEGETATION | 1966-1967 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| D05 | VEGETATION-LAND USE CHANGE PROBABILITIES | 1978 | U.S. | |
| D06 | VEGETATION REPLACEMENT BY URBAN AREAS | 1978 | WEST | COUNTY |
| D07 | POT. & ADJ. ECOREGION NATIONAL STATS | 1976 | U.S. | |
| D08 | POT. & ADJ. ECOREGION AREAS | 1976 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| D09 | POT. & ADJ. VEGETATION-ECOREGION STATS | 1978 | U.S. | |
| D10 | POT. & ADJ. VEGETATION WITHIN ECOREGIONS | 1978 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| D11 | ECOREGION CODES DICTIONARY | 1976 | U.S. | |
| D13 | VEGETATION SENSITIVITY TO SO2 | 1979 | U.S. | |
| ENERGY | ||||
| E04 | GENERATING UTILITY REFERENCE FILE (SURF) | 1981 | U.S. | POINTS |
| FORESTRY | ||||
| F08 | FOREST AREA, VOLUME, AND GROWTH | 1965-1980 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| GENERAL | ||||
| G01 | DATA SET TITLES AND CHARACTERISTICS | |||
| G02 | DATA SET VARIABLES AND LABELS | |||
| AIR QUALITY | ||||
| K04 | AIR QUALITY NONATTAINMENT AREAS (EPA) | 1979 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| LAND USE | ||||
| L01 | LAND USE (CNI DETAILED) | 1967 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| L02 | LAND CAPABILITY CLASSES (CNI) | 1967 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| L05 | LAND SURFACE MINING | 1975 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| L06 | LAND RESOURCE REGION INDEX | 1967 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| L07 | LAND USE (CNI AGGREGATED) | 1967 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| L08 | LAND AREAS (RURAL,URBAN,ROADS,WATER.FED) | 1979 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| MINERALS | ||||
| M03 | COAL RESERVES CHARACTERISTICS | 1977 | U.S. | POINTS |
| M04 | COAL PRODUCTION WITH PROJECTIONS | 1975 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| NATURAL AREAS | ||||
| N01 | RARE II TRACTS | 1978 | U.S. | POINTS |
| N02 | NATIONAL PARK SERVICE AREAS | 1979 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| N03 | WILDERNESS AREAS | 1978 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| N04 | RARE II TRACTS BY COUNTY | 1978 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| N05 | RARE II TRACTS BY ECOREGION & VEG. | 1978 | U.S. | TRACTS |
| N06 | RARE II TRACTS ORNL RANKS | 1979 | U.S. | TRACTS |
| N07 | RARE II TRACTS USFS DATA | 1978 | U.S. | TRACTS |
| N17 | NATIONAL FOREST AREAS | 1980 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| N18 | NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGES | 1980 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| POPULATION | ||||
| P01 | POPULATION BY SEX AND 5 YEAR AGE CLASSES | 1970 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| P03 | 1980 POPULATION AND HOUSING | 1980, 1970 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| TERRAIN | ||||
| T03 | SOILS AT MAP UNIT LEVEL | 1967 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| T07 | SOIL ORDER, SUBORDER, MAP UNIT DICTIONRY | 1967 | EAST | |
| T08 | GREAT SOIL GROUPS CHARACTERISTICS | 1967 | EAST | |
| T09 | GREAT SOIL GROUPS WITHIN MAP UNITS | 1967 | EAST | |
| T13 | SOILS AT SOIL ORDER LEVEL | 1967 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| T14 | PHYSICAL REGIONS | 1970 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| T15 | PHYSICAL REGIONS DICTIONARY | 1970 | U.S. | COUNTY |
| WILDLIFE | ||||
| W09 | ENDANGERED SPECIES CODES DICTIONARY | 1977 | U.S. | |
| W10 | ENDANGERED SPECIES (BNL FILE) | 1977 | U.S. | COUNTY |
DSN VARIABLE LABEL
A04 CROP CROP NAME
A04 CROP_HRV CROP HARVESTED AREA HA
A04 CROP_PLN CROP PLANTED AREA HA
A04 CROP_PRD CROP PRODUCTION FOR COUNTY KG
A04 CROP_YLD CROP YIELD, KG PER AREA
A04 FIPS_CO FIPS COUNTY NUMBER
A04 FIPS_ST FIPS STATE NUMBER
A04 YEAR 1975 YEAR OF ESCS ESTIMATE
FIPS_ST FIPS_CO CROP YEAR CROP_PLN CROP_HRV CROP_PRD CROP_YLD
01 001 CORN 75 3845 3480 12887960 3703
01 001 PEANUTS 75 0 121 326587 2699
01 001 SORGHUM 75 1376 1133 3200400 2825
01 001 SOYBEANS 75 1659 1497 1610240 1076
01 001 WHEAT 75 1538 1133 1523200 1344
01 003 CORN 75 13152 11614 45196752 3892
01 003 SORGHUM 75 931 526 1320800 2511
01 003 SOYBEANS 75 63698 62929 114199200 1815
01 003 WHEAT 75 5949 4006 4039200 1008
01 005 CORN 75 7284 6556 20574000 3138
01 005 PEANUTS 75 0 9105 21942512 2410
01 005 SORGHUM 75 243 162 304800 1881
01 005 SOYBEANS 75 1012 971 1240320 1277
February 27, 2003
February 27, 2003
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