Visualization of water use in the United States

The U.S. Geological Survey has produced a visualization that shows how much freshwater is used by each state for a variety of purposes. The visualization resizes the states according to how much freshwater they use.

The visualization shows freshwater withdrawals for thermoelectric power generation, public supply, irrigation, industrial use, or total withdrawals, with data available in 5-year intervals from 1950 to the present.

Click here to access the visualization of state water use.

Interactive map of coastal change hazards in the United States

The U.S. Geological Survey's Coastal Change Hazards Portal provides an interactive map showing the hazards posed to U.S. coasts from extreme storms, shoreline change, and sea-level rise. The map includes:

Interactive map of coastal and marine geoscience features in the United States

The Marine Cadastre National Viewer is a joint product of the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The viewer contains an enormous amount of information relevant to marine and coastal issues in interactive map form. Over 275 different map layers are available on a wide range of topics. The geoscience-related layers include:

Interactive map of streams and rivers in the United States

The U.S. Geological Survey's Streamer application allows users to explore where their surface water comes from and where it flows to. By clicking on any major stream or river, the user can trace it upstream to its source(s) or downstream to where it joins a larger river or empties into the ocean.

Interactive map of coastal flooding impacts from sea level rise

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding Impacts data viewer provides a preliminary look at how different amounts of sea level rise would affect coastal flooding in the United States.

In addition to overall flooding estimates, users can see the relative social vulnerability of coastal regions; areas currently already subject to coastal flooding; impacts on marshes; and the different levels of confidence with which predictions can be made in different areas.

Interactive map of the chemistry and mineralogy of soils in the United States

The U.S. Geological Survey provides geochemical and mineralogical maps for the conterminous United States, based on sampling data with a spatial resolution of 1 sample per 1,600 square km, for a total of 4857 sites across the country. The resulting interactive maps allow users to see regional variations in soil chemistry at different depths in the soil.

Interactive map of natural hazards and land use in the District of Columbia

The District of Columbia's Office of the Chief Technology Officer makes a huge amount of information available in interactive map form. The DC Atlas Plus map has over 340 layers of publicly available map data on a huge range of topics, including transportation, public facilities, demographics, cultural and social locations, planning and zoning, and geoscientific data. The geoscience layers available include information on:

Interactive map of carbon dioxide storage potential in the United States

The results of the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Geologic CO₂ Storage Assessment (2013) are available in interactive map form. Detailed information is available on published and unpublished storage assessments for 36 sedimentary basins. Each basin can be clicked on for more information, including:

Interactive map of the United States' geology and natural resources

The U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Mineral Resources Program's interactive Geologic Map of U.S. States provides a large amount of information on geology, natural resources, and environmental data for every U.S. state, including:

Surface and bedrock geology
Mineral resources
Geochemical and geophysical data
Water monitoring sites
Partial soil and land use data

All of the maps are also available as Google Earth files that can be downloaded and used on personal computers and mobile devices.

Visualization of average per person energy use for each state

The U.S. Department of Energy's visualization of per person energy use allows you to explore what the average energy usage for your state looks like in the form of burritos, dynamite, and other more relatable metrics. Because most people can't visualize what it means to use 148,600,000 BTU, this visualization is particularly useful for putting personal energy usage into perspective.

The data for this visualization come from the EIA State Energy Data System and represent 2012 energy use.

American Geosciences Institute

district of columbia