Ecological Land Units (ELUs)
Description
The Ecological Land Units (ELUs) resource, produced by the U.S. Geological Survey and Esri, is a 250 m global raster characterization of distinct terrestrial ecological settings. The ELUs are a combination of four inputs: climate region, landform, lithology, and land cover class. These inputs represent the primary abiotic and biotic elements of terrestrial ecosystems, and geospatial combination of these four inputs follows an ecosystem structure-based mapping approach. After combining and grouping similar combinations, almost 4000 distinct ELUs were delineated. The ELU resource allows for the query of any 250 m land pixel on the planet for its climate attributes, landform type, lithological character, and the vegetation that is found there in response to the environmental characteristics. In addition to the data, the Ecological Land Units GEO Knowledge Hub also contains other knowledge products (publications, online explorer tools, etc.) related to the ELU resource.