🇺🇸 🗺️ -> 🔢
An ASCII visualization of land cover in the contiguous U.S. over time.
Requires Miniconda or Anaconda.
conda env create -f environment.yml
conda activate nlcdLand Cover Data - Download annual NLCD CONUS GeoTIFFs from MRLC (Projects = Annual NLCD, Products = Land Cover) and place them in data/nlcd_rasters/. Files are several GB each and not tracked in this repo.
US Boundary - Download a US boundary shapefile for clipping from the Census TIGER site (labeled 'States 1:20,000,000 (national)') and place in data/us_boundary/.
python USASCII_Script.pyOutputs one PNG per year to data/nlcd_out/.
- Reads each annual NLCD raster
- Downsamples 30m → 30km via most common land use
- Extracts centroids for each downsampled pixel
- Clips to CONUS boundary
- Plots each land cover class as an ASCII character
| Class | Char |
|---|---|
| Open Water | ~ |
| Developed (Low → High) | . ▫ ◻ ⊡ |
| Barren | |
| Deciduous / Evergreen / Mixed Forest | + ^ × |
| Shrub/Scrub | · |
| Grassland | , |
| Pasture/Hay | - |
| Cultivated Crops | = |
| Woody / Herbaceous Wetlands | w v |