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Brandon Hina

Professor Wooten

Natural Resources Economics

1 April 2020

Project 5: Land Use

The United States is made up of billions of acres of land. More specifically, this land can

be broken down into 5 main categories. These include: grassland, forests, cropland, special-use,

miscellaneous, and urban. In the Bloomberg article, Here’s How America Uses Its Land, America

is described as a jigsaw puzzle made up of these different categories (Merrill and Leatherby,

2018). Grassland and Forests make up the highest percentage at 29 and 27.95 percent. Croplands

take up almost one fifth of the total. Special-use refers to parks, and other wilderness areas,

which account for 13.97. Miscellaneous and Urban are the two smallest categories, coming in at

8.65 and 3.09 percent. However, according to our Bloomberg article, urban is the fastest growing

category in the United States (Merrill & Leatherby, 2018). The New York Times article, Why The

Government Owns So Much Land in the West, covers why land ownership is dispersed the way it

is. Due to the unique terrain of western states, many people did not view them as desirable

locations to own in the 19th century. However, the federal government still owns this land and

many are fighting for it should be passed down to state level governments. It’s difficult to switch

because it would cost state governments 275 million dollars per year (Bui & Sanger-Katz, 2016).

The first visualization to focus on is the custom legend that highlights each of the five land

uses. Each category is given their own color, which will be consistent with the color scales of the

other visualizations. The name and percentage of total acres is provided in the label for
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each category. If you hover your cursor over the legend, it will give you the total amount of acres

for each category. The legend is arranged by the size of each land use, with the largest on the top

(grassland) and the smallest on the bottom (urban).

The second visualization is a bar chart that provides data for each state. The bar chart is

linked with the legend. If you click on one of the categories in the legend, the bar chart will

change to show that land use in each state. The chart focuses on the total acres of each land use

selected but can be switched to a percent measure with the highlight tool. The state with the

largest value will be at the top, while the state with the smallest value will be at the bottom. Each

land use is measured in terms of millions of acres. A tooltip for each state is provided that

consists of four measures. These include the state’s name, land use category, total acres, and a

percentage of total acres. If you select a state, that state will highlight in the map and the text

table.

To understand the how the percentage of land use is broken up for each state, refer to the

map of the United States. This visualization also follows the legend, as you interact with it. The

darker each state is, the more percentage they use for that category. The map has the same tooltip

as the bar chart, to provide further information. There is a search bar provided so you can

highlight each of the 48 contiguous states. Selecting a state on the map will highlight it in both

the bar chart and the text table.

The last visualization is the text table, provided in the top right corner of the dashboard.

The numbers constantly change as you interact with the dashboard. The chart is broken in the

three categories which include use, percent, and acres. The table is linked to each of the other

visualizations. If you select a category in the legend it will highlight in the table. If you select a
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state in either the bar chart or US Map, all the percentages and totals of that state will be

provided in the table.

This is the first project where I haven’t created a visualization on New Jersey. However,

the visualizations in this project provide useful information as how New Jersey differs from the

rest of the nation. New Jersey has the highest urban percentage in the Unites States because it is

located near two major metropolitan areas. New Jersey does a great job of representing other

states in the area. We only see high urban percentages in northeastern states like Massachusetts

and Connecticut. The US Map shows that grasslands are more common on the western half of

the Us, while forests are more common on the eastern half. Croplands are predominately popular

in the Midwest states like Iowa and Illinois. One thing you have to remember when looking at

these visualizations, is the difference between total use and percentage. States with large surface

areas might have some of the largest totals, in terms of acres, but small percentage values for that

category.

As we discussed in lecture, where land is located matters. More specifically, where land

is located affects its value. Each state has different characteristics and resources that forces them

to allocate these 5 categories in the most efficient way. Each state’s resources, make each of

these categories more or less value. For example, states like Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, and

Wyoming, have a lot of open land which makes them perfect for destinations to keep livestock

(grassland). The state with the highest land value per acre is New Jersey. The reason for this is

because New Jersey, as stated earlier, is right next to both New York City and Philadelphia. The

land that is closest to cities is the most valuable. New Jersey is a smaller state which makes that

value even higher. These visualizations show that New Jersey has the highest percentage of

urban usage, at 40.05 percent.

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References

Bui, Q., & Sanger-Katz, M. (2016, January 6). Why the Government Owns So Much Land in the

West. Retrieved March 31, 2020, from

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/06/upshot/why-the-government-owns-so-much-land-

in-the-west.html

Merrill, D., & Leatherby, L. (2018, July 31). Here's How America Uses Its Land. Retrieved

March 31, 2020, from https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-us-land-use/

USDA Economics Research Service (2017). Major Land Use series, 2012.
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