Dataset · Hazard
EPA Green Book area boundaries
Available epa-green-book-areas
The EPA Green Book's mapped non-attainment and maintenance area boundaries, one shapefile per standard in force, and how much of each county and metro lies inside a non-attainment area, per pollutant. Where the county designations count a county only partly inside an area in full, these measure the part.
- Publisher
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- Category
- Hazard
- Period
- The export date of the county file (each area's status and class); each shapefile's own date is stored with it
- Refresh cadence
- Monthly
- Measures
- 8
- Licence
- Public domain (U.S. federal government work)
Source
| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Publisher | U.S. Environmental Protection Agency |
| Product | Green Book: non-attainment and maintenance area boundaries (GIS shapefiles) |
| Source | https://www.epa.gov/green-book/green-book-gis-download (opens in a new tab) |
| Category | Hazard |
| Period | The export date of the county file (each area's status and class); each shapefile's own date is stored with it |
| Refresh cadence | Monthly |
| Geographies | County, for every state and territory, and metro. A county the Green Book designates whole is 1, one it designates in part is measured on the boundary, and a metro is its counties' shares weighted by area. |
| Availability | Available |
| Cadastre key | epa-green-book-areas |
Licence and attribution
| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Licence | Public domain (U.S. federal government work) |
| Terms | https://www.epa.gov/web-policies-and-procedures/epa-disclaimers (opens in a new tab) |
| Register status | Production approved; licence open |
| Allowed uses | evaluation, internal, public_display, derived_analytics, redistribution, bulk_export, public_geometry |
This source requires no credit line beyond naming the publisher. Cite it as U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Green Book: non-attainment and maintenance area boundaries (GIS shapefiles).
Measures
The key is the measure's identifier in Cadastre. A measure stored for the metro itself is read as stored; Rule from counties is how a metro is assembled from its counties where it is not (see Methodology).
| Key | Label | Unit | Rule from counties |
|---|---|---|---|
epa_ozone_nonattainment_area_share | Area inside ozone non-attainment areas (share) | share of the area (0-1) inside an area in ozone non-attainment (class 2 or more); 1 for a county the Green Book designates whole; a county designated in part is measured on the boundary; a metro is its counties' shares weighted by area; area, not population; measured on EPA's mapped area boundaries, which EPA says are for mapping only and not the legal definition (40 CFR part 81) | Not assembled from counties: a metro has a value only where one is stored for the metro itself |
epa_pm25_nonattainment_area_share | Area inside PM2.5 non-attainment areas (share) | share of the area (0-1) inside an area in PM2.5 non-attainment (class 2 or more); 1 for a county the Green Book designates whole; a county designated in part is measured on the boundary; a metro is its counties' shares weighted by area; area, not population; measured on EPA's mapped area boundaries, which EPA says are for mapping only and not the legal definition (40 CFR part 81) | Not assembled from counties: a metro has a value only where one is stored for the metro itself |
epa_pm10_nonattainment_area_share | Area inside PM10 non-attainment areas (share) | share of the area (0-1) inside an area in PM10 non-attainment (class 2 or more); 1 for a county the Green Book designates whole; a county designated in part is measured on the boundary; a metro is its counties' shares weighted by area; area, not population; measured on EPA's mapped area boundaries, which EPA says are for mapping only and not the legal definition (40 CFR part 81) | Not assembled from counties: a metro has a value only where one is stored for the metro itself |
epa_so2_nonattainment_area_share | Area inside sulfur dioxide non-attainment areas (share) | share of the area (0-1) inside an area in sulfur dioxide non-attainment (class 2 or more); 1 for a county the Green Book designates whole; a county designated in part is measured on the boundary; a metro is its counties' shares weighted by area; area, not population; measured on EPA's mapped area boundaries, which EPA says are for mapping only and not the legal definition (40 CFR part 81) | Not assembled from counties: a metro has a value only where one is stored for the metro itself |
epa_lead_nonattainment_area_share | Area inside lead non-attainment areas (share) | share of the area (0-1) inside an area in lead non-attainment (class 2 or more); 1 for a county the Green Book designates whole; a county designated in part is measured on the boundary; a metro is its counties' shares weighted by area; area, not population; measured on EPA's mapped area boundaries, which EPA says are for mapping only and not the legal definition (40 CFR part 81) | Not assembled from counties: a metro has a value only where one is stored for the metro itself |
epa_co_nonattainment_area_share | Area inside carbon monoxide non-attainment areas (share) | share of the area (0-1) inside an area in carbon monoxide non-attainment (class 2 or more); 1 for a county the Green Book designates whole; a county designated in part is measured on the boundary; a metro is its counties' shares weighted by area; area, not population; measured on EPA's mapped area boundaries, which EPA says are for mapping only and not the legal definition (40 CFR part 81) | Not assembled from counties: a metro has a value only where one is stored for the metro itself |
epa_no2_nonattainment_area_share | Area inside nitrogen dioxide non-attainment areas (share) | share of the area (0-1) inside an area in nitrogen dioxide non-attainment (class 2 or more); 1 for a county the Green Book designates whole; a county designated in part is measured on the boundary; a metro is its counties' shares weighted by area; area, not population; measured on EPA's mapped area boundaries, which EPA says are for mapping only and not the legal definition (40 CFR part 81) | Not assembled from counties: a metro has a value only where one is stored for the metro itself |
epa_any_nonattainment_area_share | Area inside any non-attainment area (share) | share of the area (0-1) inside an area in non-attainment for any criteria pollutant (class 2 or more); 1 for a county the Green Book designates whole; a county designated in part is measured on the boundary; a metro is its counties' shares weighted by area; area, not population; measured on EPA's mapped area boundaries, which EPA says are for mapping only and not the legal definition (40 CFR part 81) | Not assembled from counties: a metro has a value only where one is stored for the metro itself |
Known gaps and caveats
- EPA publishes the shapefiles for mapping and visualization only: they are not the legal definition of the areas, which is 40 CFR part 81.
- These are shares of area (inland water included), not of population: where people live inside a partial county is not known at this grain.
- An area's status and class come from the Green Book county file, read by the same rules as the county designations; revoked standards are skipped.
- Connecticut replaced its eight counties with nine planning regions, which Census geography now uses; a planning region at least 98% inside legacy counties designated whole is 1, any other is measured against the boundaries of the legacy counties' areas it overlaps.
- A boundary is a designation, not monitored air quality, a permit outcome or a statement about a particular site.