Parking lots may be a significant source of pollution, but up until now there has been no quantitative estimate of the areal extent of parking lots in the U.S.
Estimates of areal extent of U.S. parking lots now available
This data release consists of a time series of five national 60-meter raster datasets which estimate the proportion of each pixel represented by parking lots, based on land-use coefficients. The rasters span the conterminous United States, for the years 1974, 1982, 1992, 2002, and 2012. The rasters provide a way to estimate percent parking lot area by watershed or other area of interest, over the last four decades. This is a valuable tool for land-use planners and others interested in the spatial extent of these important impervious surfaces.