Beautifully detailed maps show what makes up the American landscape
Maps have always helped us gain a better grasp of the world we live in.
Based on data from the 2014 USDA's CropScape Program, designer Michael Pecirno created these beautifully detailed maps to show what makes up the American landscape (the lower 48 states) as a whole. Pecirno pulled specific data to show how grasslands, forests, crops, and water cover the entire country.
The maps, called "Minimal Maps," are an ongoing project that aim to explore how "richly-detailed single subject maps can give us new imagery to understand our landscape," Pecirno writes on his website.
"For instance, corn fields take up 91 million acres of the American landscape. This is a staggering 4.83% of the continuous United States," Pecirno writes. "While hearing that value is quite astounding, there is little way right now for us to visualize what 4.83% of the American landscape looks like, or furthermore, where this land is. By focusing each map on a single subject, we are able to better visualize and understand our landscape."
Check out the maps below.
