Impervious Map: Seamless high-resolution impervious canopy data

Name: EarthDefine Impervious Map
Creator: EarthDefine
License: https://www.earthdefine.com/contact/
Keywords: impervious surfaces, impervious cover, paved surfaces, stormwater, geospatial data, GIS data, United States, nationwide, EarthDefine

EarthDefine's Impervious Map is the most detailed and up-to-date mapping of impervious surfaces across the contiguous United States. It captures built-up surfaces, buildings, roads, sidewalks, parking lots, airports and more, as a single impervious class at 60cm resolution, refreshed annually to track the changing built environment.

60cm

resolution

94.9%

urban-area accuracy

2500x

finer than legacy 30m data

Impervious juxtapose: Kansas City NAIP — Kansas City, KS · NAIP imagery

Impervious juxtapose: Kansas City impervious — EarthDefine Impervious Map

Our proprietary AI advantage

We developed a robust AI model that consistently classifies impervious cover in aerial imagery across the continental US. It classified over 120 terabytes of high-resolution colour-infrared imagery spanning more than 3.1 million square miles to create the Impervious Map.

Why we outperform government & commercial data

The National Land Cover Database (NLCD) is the only other nationwide impervious dataset, but at 30-metre resolution on a five-year cycle it is not suited to precise, current analyses. Our map classifies impervious cover at 2500 times the spatial resolution and updates annually, capturing even driveways and sidewalks, and resolving surfaces partially obscured by tree cover or shadow so road connectivity and structures stay accurate.

Impervious juxtapose: Salem OR NLCD — NLCD · 30m impervious

Impervious juxtapose: Salem OR EarthDefine — EarthDefine · 60cm impervious

Accuracy standards that drive industry adoption

The Impervious Map has an overall accuracy of 94.9% in census-defined urban areas. Accuracy was assessed using 48,000 random points (1,000 per state).

Professional-grade change detection

The Impervious Map AI model can map impervious cover from aerial imagery of previous years. For most of the US we have historical imagery back to ~2010, so multiple snapshots can be derived for change analysis.

Ready-to-integrate solutions

High-resolution impervious-cover data is a key environmental indicator useful for many applications.

calculating stormwater runoff volume, modelling water quality and flood risk
developing a TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) using impervious cover as a surrogate for runoff pollutants
understanding urban heat islands
developing stormwater management plans
improving mapping of urban and rural populations through dasymetric mapping
measuring non-point-source pollution and downstream water quality
assessing stream-bank stability and streambed sedimentation
understanding relationships between land-use types and imperviousness

See impervious surfaces in the free samples

Browse free samples

Data coverage and freshness

The Impervious Map is refreshed annually from the latest NAIP acquisition cycle, with seamless, ready-to-deliver coverage across the contiguous United States.

Shared: EarthDefine coverage map (US, 2026)

Try it yourself

Download the datasheet, or grab a free sample for any of 15 US cities.

Download the datasheet Download a free sample

Frequently Asked Questions

What does the Impervious Map include?

A 60cm raster of impervious surfaces, buildings, roads, sidewalks, parking lots and more, mapped as a single class.

How accurate is it?

94.9% accuracy in urban areas, and even higher accuracy in rural areas.

What is it used for?

Stormwater runoff and water-quality modelling, urban heat-island analysis, TMDL studies, and dasymetric population mapping.

How often is it updated?

Annually, tied to new aerial imagery.

Can I download a free sample?

Yes. Download a free Impervious Map sample.

Map impervious surfaces across your area of interest

Talk to our team about Impervious Map coverage for your region, or download a free sample to evaluate the data yourself.

Download a free sample

EarthDefine Impervious Map