gorgeous Maps Of all the timber, Sprawl, and Corn within the U.S.

an incredibly giant chunk of the U.S.—an area almost as large as Montana, or 91 million acres—is covered in corn. As a analysis fellow studying corn as a commodity crop, Michael Pecirno mapped out all of the cornfields within the country, and that led him to expand the project: a series of minimalist maps that each and every appears to be like at a single subject.

“It type of spread out this new point of view—a option to keep in mind the American landscape thru a unique lens,” says Pecirno, who started the project at the Chicago-based Archeworks, a postgrad application for architects. to this point, he is mapped out urban sprawl, freshwater, and all of the shrubs, grass, and forests within the country.

not like a typical map, the only-topic maps aim to expose bigger patterns that people may not were aware about. “Mapping expertise has improved so much over the previous few years,” Pecirno says. “every time you log into Google Maps, there may be every other space delivered to boulevard View. Maps have turn into ubiquitous, but they do not in reality inform new tales, simply the identical stories in larger definition. i believe by using looking at just a single merchandise, although, you actually start to have a better understanding of the panorama.”

all of the information came from the USDA’s obsessively special records. “fortunately, the USDA keeps a in point of fact accurate document of all the land in the us, down to the point the place you will find what every single acre has been used for over the last 13 years,” he says. subsequent, he plans to begin mapping trade over time. “There can be a truly interesting story instructed via having a look at zoomed-in areas, and working out how a panorama has modified over the years, or at different times when critical occasions maybe brought about land to vary.”

Now in London, Pecirno is mapping out similar patterns throughout the U.ok., although the information are a little harder to search out. “it is not as easily obtainable,” he says. “The kind of knowledge that I used for these maps is so easy that anyone with a pc can go browsing and see this.”