Every file the site reads is public at a stable URL under https://the-ledger-of-the-earth.vercel.app/data/. Each value carries its own source, date, and freshness tier; a gap is shown as a gap. Point layers are also offered as CSV. A machine-readable index of this table is at data/manifest.json.
Licenses. The compilation, the derived values (static lifetimes, interpolations, percent-of-median, area-weighted means), and the commentary are released under CC BY 4.0: use them in a class, a paper, or a slide with attribution. The underlying figures remain under their publishers' terms, which for US government sources (USGS, NOAA, USBR, NRCS, EIA) is the public domain and for others is cited per record. The site's code and presentation are proprietary (see the repository LICENSE).
| File | What it holds | Cadence | License | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| data/live.json | Every summary feed: value, unit, data date, source, URL, tier, fetch time, ok/stale flags. Plus an index of point layers. | daily | CC BY 4.0 for the compilation; each value remains under its publisher's terms (cited per record) | 2026-10-15 |
| data/live.csv | Flat CSV of the summary feeds (one row per feed; dict values JSON-encoded). | daily | CC BY 4.0 (compilation) | 2026-10-15 |
| data/commodities.json | Curated commodity meters: reserves, production, resources, demand path, by-country reserves, with source and date per field. | annual + edits | CC BY 4.0 (compilation); figures USGS (CC0), GCB (CC BY) | 2026-10-15 |
| data/usgs_world.json | Per-commodity world production and reserves, by country, parsed from the USGS MCS 2026 data release. | annual | CC0 (USGS) · parsing CC BY 4.0 | 2026-10-15 |
| data/usgs_world.csv | Flat CSV of the above (world totals only). | annual | CC0 (USGS) | 2026-10-15 |
| data/usgs_mcs2026_extract.json | Raw rows kept from the USGS data release (World and country production/reserves), with the original header. | annual | CC0 (USGS) | 2026-10-15 |
| data/systems.json | The system map: every subsystem the ledger tracks, its feed, cadence, status, and coverage, including gaps. | as edited | CC BY 4.0 | 2026-10-15 |
| data/static.json | Dated one-off figures (studies, surveys) with provenance. | as edited | CC BY 4.0 (compilation); each figure per its study | 2026-10-15 |
| data/remediation.json | Remediation & reclamation entries: operating, pipeline, realistic. | as edited | CC BY 4.0 (compilation) | 2026-10-15 |
| data/layers/great_lakes.json | Point layer: Great Lakes gauges (6 points). Source: NOAA CO-OPS water level API (IGLD85). | live | Per source (US government data is public domain); compilation CC BY 4.0 | 2026-10-15 |
| data/layers/great_lakes.csv | Flat CSV of the Great Lakes gauges layer. | live | as above | 2026-10-15 |
| data/layers/snotel.json | Point layer: Snowpack (SNOTEL SWE) (881 points). Source: NRCS AWDB REST API. | live | Per source (US government data is public domain); compilation CC BY 4.0 | 2026-10-15 |
| data/layers/snotel.csv | Flat CSV of the Snowpack (SNOTEL SWE) layer. | live | as above | 2026-10-15 |
| data/layers/usbr_reservoirs.json | Point layer: Western US reservoirs (USBR) (142 points). Source: USBR RISE via Western Water Datahub EDR. | live | Per source (US government data is public domain); compilation CC BY 4.0 | 2026-10-15 |
| data/layers/usbr_reservoirs.csv | Flat CSV of the Western US reservoirs (USBR) layer. | live | as above | 2026-10-15 |
| data/layers/usgs_groundwater.json | Point layer: US groundwater wells (continuous depth to water) (4065 points). Source: USGS Water Data API, latest-continuous, parameter 72019. | live | Per source (US government data is public domain); compilation CC BY 4.0 | 2026-10-15 |
| data/layers/usgs_groundwater.csv | Flat CSV of the US groundwater wells (continuous depth to water) layer. | live | as above | 2026-10-15 |
data/live.jsonfeeds{id:{label,value,unit,data_date,source,url,tier,fetched_utc,ok,stale,series?,note?}}, layers{id:{file,name,system,subsystem,tier,n,data_date,summary,source,url}}data/commodities.jsoncommodities[{id,name,unit,reserves,production_2025,reserves_by_country,...}], fossil{...}data/usgs_world.jsoncommodities{name:{unit,production_latest,production_year,reserves,reserves_qualifier,reserves_by_country,production_by_country}}data/usgs_mcs2026_extract.jsonheader[], rows[][] in header order
data/systems.jsonsystems[{id,name,subsystems[{id,name,feed,cadence,status,coverage}]}]data/static.json{water[],ocean[],air[],datacenter[],plastics[]} items {id,label,value,unit,as_of,source,url,tier,note?}data/remediation.jsonentries[{id,category,status,label,scale,unit,as_of,source,url,tier,note?,assessment?}]data/layers/great_lakes.jsonpoints[{lat,lon,name,value,unit,data_date,...}], summary{}data/layers/snotel.jsonpoints[{lat,lon,name,value,unit,data_date,...}], summary{}data/layers/usbr_reservoirs.jsonpoints[{lat,lon,name,value,unit,data_date,...}], summary{}data/layers/usgs_groundwater.jsonpoints[{lat,lon,name,value,unit,data_date,...}], summary{}
LIVE fetched daily or faster · PERIODIC weekly or monthly · ANNUAL once a year (meters interpolate between releases and say so) · STATIC a dated one-off study · CURATED / ASSESSMENT hand-maintained lists and the author's own judgment · PENDING a feed identified and not yet wired · NO DATA no public dataset exists.
A dated snapshot of the data files is kept monthly under data/archive/ so that a citation to a given date can be verified later. The first snapshot is taken on the first day of the month after this page went live.