Ecological Land Units (ELUs) - Public Domain Data
Description
Ecological Land Units (ELUs) are areas of distinct bioclimate, landform, lithology, and land cover that form the basic components of terrestrial ecosystem structure. The ELU map for 2015 was produced by combining the values in four 250m cell-sized rasters using the ArcGIS Combine tool (Spatial Analyst). These four components resulted in 3,639 different combinations or ELUs.
This 2015 map contains updates to the 2014 map in the form of landforms and land cover data, which have greater variety of classes and better spatial coherence (less arbitrary fragmentation).
These four component datasets represent the most accurate, current, globally comprehensive, and finest spatial and thematic resolution data available for each of the four inputs. Each combination was assigned a color using an algorithm that blended traditional color schemes for each of the four components.