Data sources

Data centers, cities and land cover

Elevation: USGS 3DEP

Ground elevation, slope and elevation profiles come from USGS 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) DEMs, read from USGS's public data as each question needs them. Geothenes does not store a copy.

US states, counties and metro areas: U.S. Census Bureau

State, county and metro-area maps fill the Census Bureau's 2025 cartographic boundaries, generalized to 1:5,000,000. They are drawn only at that scale or smaller: zoomed in closer (about zoom 5.5 on the map), they hide. Which county, metro area or state a data center is in comes from the full-resolution TIGER/Line counties, not from these shapes, and areas come from the Census Bureau's own land and water figures.

Use constraints (Census Bureau metadata, each 1:5,000,000 file)The intended display scale for this file is 1:5,000,000. This file should not be displayed at scales larger than 1:5,000,000. These products are free to use in a product or publication, however acknowledgement must be given to the U.S. Census Bureau as the source. The boundary information is for visual display at appropriate small scales only. Cartographic boundary files should not be used for geographic analysis including area or perimeter calculation. Files should not be used for geocoding addresses. Files should not be used for determining precise geographic area relationships.

Water risk: WRI Aqueduct 4.0

Water stress, depletion, variability and flood-risk values for river sub-basins, from the World Resources Institute's Aqueduct 4.0, joined to the data centers whose location is precise and to shared city points. Geothenes ships the values only: it shows no basin outlines or overlays, offers no basin downloads, and has no water-stress value for any other point (use WRI's Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas for that).

CreditWater risk: WRI Aqueduct 4.0 (Kuzma et al. 2023, https://doi.org/10.46830/writn.23.00061; data: https://www.wri.org/data/aqueduct-global-maps-40-data), © 2023 World Resources Institute, CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), provided as is, without warranty; modified by Geothenes (subset of indicators, joined to data-center locations). Basin keys: HydroBASINS level 6, © World Wildlife Fund, Inc. (2006-2022), used under license.

WRI copyright noticeCopyright 2023 World Resources Institute

WRI license noticeThis dataset is licensed in accordance with the terms of a creative commons license (CC BY 4.0).

WRI technical noteCopyright 2023 World Resources Institute. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

WRI disclaimer (Aqueduct 4.0 LICENSE.txt)THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

HydroSHEDS statement (HydroSHEDS v1 License Agreement, Exhibit B)This product Geothenes incorporates data from the HydroSHEDS version 1 database which is © World Wildlife Fund, Inc. (2006-2022) and has been used herein under license. WWF has not evaluated the data as altered and incorporated within Geothenes, and therefore gives no warranty regarding its accuracy, completeness, currency or suitability for any particular purpose. Portions of the HydroSHEDS v1 database incorporate data which are the intellectual property rights of © USGS (2006-2008), NASA (2000-2005), ESRI (1992-1998), CIAT (2004-2006), UNEP-WCMC (1993), WWF (2004), Commonwealth of Australia (2007), and Her Royal Majesty and the British Crown and are used under license. The HydroSHEDS v1 database and more information are available at https://www.hydrosheds.org.

Citations:

• Kuzma, S., M.F.P. Bierkens, S. Lakshman, T. Luo, L. Saccoccia, E. H. Sutanudjaja, and R. Van Beek. 2023. “Aqueduct 4.0: Updated decision-relevant global water risk indicators.” Technical Note. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute. Available online at: doi.org/10.46830/writn.23.00061.
• Lehner, B., Grill G. (2013). Global river hydrography and network routing: baseline data and new approaches to study the world’s large river systems. Hydrological Processes, 27(15): 2171–2186. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.9740
• Lehner, B., Verdin, K., Jarvis, A. (2008): New global hydrography derived from spaceborne elevation data. Eos, Transactions, AGU, 89(10): 93-94.

Cooling climate: NASA POWER and NOAA

Three climate products, kept apart: Geothenes never ranks values from two of them in one list. NASA POWER covers the world (cooling degree days, design wet-bulb, temperature and humidity at about 55 km), NOAA's official station normals cover U.S. weather stations, and a county table derived from NOAA nClimDiv covers U.S. counties. The world cooling-degree-day and design wet-bulb maps are classified pictures of the POWER values.

POWER referenceThe data was obtained from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley Research Center's Prediction Of Worldwide Energy Resources (POWER) project funded through the NASA Earth Science Division.

POWER data referenceThe data was obtained from the POWER Project's Climatology (Analysis Ready Data Zarr, POWER Version 10.0.0) version on 2026/10/21.

Use liability (NOAA NCEI)NOAA and NCEI cannot provide any warranty as to the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of furnished data. Users assume responsibility to determine the usability of these data. The user is responsible for the results of any application of this data for other than its intended purpose.

Distribution liability (NOAA NCEI)NOAA and NCEI make no warranty, expressed or implied, regarding these data, nor does the fact of distribution constitute such a warranty. NOAA and NCEI cannot assume liability for any damages caused by any errors or omissions in these data. If appropriate, NCEI can only certify that the data it distributes are an authentic copy of the records that were accepted for inclusion in the NCEI archives.

Flood zones and sea-level rise: FEMA and NOAA

Whether a data center sits in FEMA's 100-year or 500-year floodplain comes from FEMA's own point test against its full-resolution National Flood Hazard Layer, run for every building-precise US site; sites with only a city-level location get a per-metro answer. The flood-zone shapes on the map are generalized copies for the big data-center metros and the neighbourhood of each precise site, and a dashed outline shows where they stop. Sea-level rise is NOAA's high-tide inundation with 0 to 3 ft of rise: no storm surge, waves or erosion. None of this is a flood determination, an insurance answer or a permitting answer.

CreditFlood hazard zones: FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer (NFHL); Sea level rise: NOAA Office for Coastal Management, Sea Level Rise Viewer data

FEMA disclaimer (the NFHL's license information)User assumes all risk related to the use of this data. FEMA provides this data "as is" and disclaims any and all warranties, whether express or implied, including (without limitation) any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, and there are no express or implied guarantees of accuracy of the data. In no event will FEMA or any other Federal Agency be liable to you or to any third party for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or exemplary damages or lost profit resulting from any use or misuse of this data.

NOAA credit request (sea level rise data metadata)Acknowledgment of the NOAA Office for Coastal Management as a data source would be appreciated in products developed from these data, and such acknowledgment as is standard for citation and legal practices for data source is expected.

NOAA use constraints (sea level rise data metadata)These data illustrate the scale of potential flooding, not the exact location, and do not account for erosion, subsidence, or future construction. Inundation is shown as it would appear during the highest high tides (excludes wind driven tides) with the sea level rise amount. These data should be used only as a screening-level tool for management decisions. As with all remotely sensed data, all features should be verified with a site visit. The dataset is provided "as is," without warranty to its performance, merchantable state, or fitness for any particular purpose. The entire risk associated with the results and performance of this dataset is assumed by the user. This dataset should be used strictly as a planning reference and not for navigation, permitting, or other legal purposes.

NOAA distribution liability (1-3 ft data; 0 ft data)Any conclusions drawn from the analysis of this information are not the responsibility of the Coastal Services Center or its partners. / Any conclusions drawn from the analysis of this information are not the responsibility of the Office for Coastal Management or its partners.

Earthquakes and seismic hazard: USGS and contributors

The earthquake table holds magnitude 5 and larger earthquakes worldwide since 1900 (4.5 and larger in four US areas), from the USGS ANSS Comprehensive Catalog. Each value comes from a contributing agency, and only values whose producer allows this use are kept: 15% of the rows take values from the ISC-GEM catalogue, which is shared under CC BY-SA 3.0, so Geothenes shares its version of the whole table under that license too (see Downloads). Seismic hazard is the USGS National Seismic Hazard Model's peak ground acceleration for the conterminous US: long-term shaking levels for a reference site class, not building-code design values.

Earthquake credit (CC BY-SA 3.0)Earthquakes: USGS ANSS Comprehensive Catalog (ComCat; USGS public domain, ANSS partner networks, Global CMT), including ISC-GEM catalogue rows © International Seismological Centre and GEM Foundation, CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/); GeoNet rows © Earth Sciences New Zealand, CC BY 3.0 NZ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/nz/): "We acknowledge the New Zealand GeoNet programme and its sponsors NHC, Earth Sciences NZ, LINZ, NEMA and MBIE for providing data/images used in this study."; NRCan rows: Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada. (https://open.canada.ca/en/open-government-licence-canada); table adapted by Geothenes and shared under CC BY-SA 3.0.

ISC-GEM notice (ISC's own wording)The Catalogue is protected by the Copyright (C) 2025 International Seismological Centre and GEM Foundation. You may use this work under the terms of the CC-BY-SA 3.0 (unported)

GeoNet license and acknowledgementGeoNet content is copyright Earth Sciences New Zealand and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand License. We acknowledge the New Zealand GeoNet programme and its sponsors NHC, Earth Sciences NZ, LINZ, NEMA and MBIE for providing data/images used in this study.

NRCan attributionContains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.

USGS ComCat use constraintThe data you have secured from the ANSS Comprehensive Catalog may include data that have not received Director’s approval and as such are provisional and subject to revision. The data are released on the condition that neither the USGS nor the United States Government may be held liable for any damages resulting from its authorized or unauthorized use

Citations:

• U.S. Geological Survey, Earthquake Hazards Program, 2017, Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) Comprehensive Catalog of Earthquake Events and Products: Various, https://doi.org/10.5066/F7MS3QZH.
• International Seismological Centre (2026), ISC-GEM Earthquake Catalogue, https://doi.org/10.31905/d808b825
• Storchak, D.A., D. Di Giacomo, I. Bondár, E.R. Engdahl, J. Harris, W.H.K. Lee, A. Villaseñor and P. Bormann (2013). Public Release of the ISC-GEM Global Instrumental Earthquake Catalogue (1900-2009). Seism. Res. Lett., 84, 5, 810-815, doi: 10.1785/0220130034.
• Storchak, D.A., D. Di Giacomo, E.R. Engdahl, J. Harris, I. Bondár, W.H.K. Lee, P. Bormann and A. Villaseñor (2015). The ISC-GEM Global Instrumental Earthquake Catalogue (1900-2009): Introduction, Phys. Earth Planet. Int., 239, 48-63, doi: 10.1016/j.pepi.2014.06.009.
• Di Giacomo, D., E.R. Engdahl and D.A. Storchak (2018). The ISC-GEM Earthquake Catalogue (1904–2014): status after the Extension Project, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 10, 1877-1899, doi: 10.5194/essd-10-1877-2018.
• Bondár, I., E.R. Engdahl, A. Villaseñor, J. Harris and D.A. Storchak, 2015. ISC-GEM: Global Instrumental Earthquake Catalogue (1900-2009): II. Location and seismicity patterns, Phys. Earth Planet. Int., 239, 2-13, doi: 10.1016/j.pepi.2014.06.002.
• Di Giacomo, D., I. Bondár, D.A. Storchak, E.R. Engdahl, P. Bormann and J. Harris (2015a). ISC-GEM: Global Instrumental Earthquake Catalogue (1900-2009): III. Re-computed MS and mb, proxy MW, final magnitude composition and completeness assessment, Phys. Earth Planet. Int., 239, 33-47, doi: 10.1016/j.pepi.2014.06.005.

Seismic hazard creditSeismic hazard: USGS National Seismic Hazard Model 2023, revision CONUS.2023.R2 (Altekruse, Powers & Milner 2026, doi:10.5066/P14VGAV4), CC0; acknowledgment: U.S. Geological Survey, National Seismic Hazard Mapping Project.

NSHM citationAltekruse, J.M., Powers, P.M., and Milner, K.R., 2026, Mean Seismic Hazard Curves and Uniform-Hazard Ground Motion Values from the Revised 2023 US 50-state National Seismic Hazard Model: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P14VGAV4.

NSHM use constraintAcknowledgment of the U.S. Geological Survey, National Seismic Hazard Mapping Project would be appreciated in products derived from these data.

NSHM rightsThis work is marked with the Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal (CC0-1.0) public domain dedication; https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/.

USGS liability statement (NSHM data release)Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Although this information product, for the most part, is in the public domain, it also contains copyrighted materials as noted in the text. Permission to reproduce copyrighted items must be secured from the copyright owner whenever applicable. The data have been approved for release and publication by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Although the data have been subjected to rigorous review and are substantially complete, the USGS reserves the right to revise the data pursuant to further analysis and review. Furthermore, the data are released on the condition that neither the USGS nor the U.S. Government may be held liable for any damages resulting from authorized or unauthorized use. Although the data have been processed successfully on computer systems at the U.S. Geological Survey, no warranty expressed or implied is made regarding the display or utility of the data on any other system, or for general or scientific purposes, nor shall the act of distribution constitute any such warranty. The U.S. Geological Survey shall not be held liable for improper or incorrect use of the data described and/or contained herein. Users of the data are advised to read all metadata and associated documentation thoroughly to understand appropriate use and data limitations.

Country statistics: Our World in Data

25 country-level indicators from Our World in Data (OWID), saved as a snapshot (retrieved 2026-10-21, refreshed every few months). OWID's own data is CC BY 4.0; data it republishes keeps its producer's license, shown per indicator. Geothenes keeps an indicator only when every producer's license allows reuse with attribution. OWID's chart software is not used, only the data.

CreditCountry statistics: Our World in Data (OWID's processing: CC BY 4.0), from Ember, World Bank, Global Carbon Budget, Jones et al., HYDE, Gapminder, OWID population series and ERA5 (Copernicus C3S) under CC BY 4.0; UN World Population Prospects, UN World Urbanization Prospects and UNDP Human Development Report under CC BY 3.0 IGO; U.S. EIA (public domain). Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026. Neither the European Commission nor ECMWF is responsible for any use that may be made of the Copernicus information or data it contains. Filtered and joined by Geothenes. Boundaries: Made with Natural Earth.

Required notice (Annual temperature anomalies)Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026. Neither the European Commission nor ECMWF is responsible for any use that may be made of the Copernicus information or data it contains.

Left out on license grounds, even where a republisher lists CC BY:

• ITU telecom data (internet use, broadband, mobile subscriptions): CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO, non-commercial.
• Energy Institute data, which OWID's electricity-mix and energy charts include: private use only. Geothenes reads Ember's and the U.S. EIA's own tables instead.
• FAO data, including FAO series the World Bank republishes (land area, forests, water withdrawals): its terms forbid promoting a commercial product.
• IMF data, including the World Bank's GDP per capita at purchasing-power parity, which lists the IMF's World Economic Outlook among its sources: the IMF's terms require its permission for commercial reuse. Geothenes uses GDP per capita in constant 2015 US dollars instead.
• EM-DAT, IEA, IHME, IRENA and WHO data: non-commercial or copyright-only terms.

Country boundaries

Basemap

Downloads

The camera data comes from OpenStreetMap under the Open Database License (ODbL). Geothenes adds Census population and cameras per 10,000 residents to it, which makes a derivative database, so Geothenes' version is offered here under the same license, as CSV. No other Geothenes table uses the camera data.

The earthquake table includes ISC-GEM catalogue rows shared under CC BY-SA 3.0, so Geothenes' adapted version of the whole table is offered here under CC BY-SA 3.0, as compressed CSV, with each row's source and license.

ODbL noticeGeothenes' maps and answers about license-plate-reader cameras contain information from the Geothenes license-plate-reader cameras by city database, which is made available here under the Open Database License (ODbL).