Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US)

The USGS Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US) is the nation's inventory of protected areas, including public open space and voluntarily provided, private protected areas, identified as an A-16 National Geospatial Data Asset in the Cadastral Theme (http://www.fgdc.gov/ngda-reports/NGDA_Datasets.html). PAD-US is an ongoing project with several published versions of a spatial database of areas dedicated to the preservation of biological diversity, and other natural, recreational or cultural uses, managed for these purposes through legal or other effective means. The geodatabase maps and describes public open space and other protected areas. Most areas are public lands owned in fee; however, long-term easements, leases, and agreements or administrative designations documented in agency management plans may be included. The PAD-US database strives to be a complete “best available” inventory of protected areas (lands and waters) including data provided by managing agencies and organizations. The dataset is built in collaboration with several partners and data providers (http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/stewards/). See Supplemental Information Section of this metadata record for more information on partnerships and links to major partner organizations. As this dataset is a compilation of many data sets; data completeness, accuracy, and scale may vary. Federal and state data are generally complete, while local government and private protected area coverage is about 50% complete, and depends on data management capacity in the state. For completeness estimates by state: http://www.protectedlands.net/partners. As the federal and state data are reasonably complete; focus is shifting to completing the inventory of local gov and voluntarily provided, private protected areas. The PAD-US geodatabase contains over twenty-five attributes and four feature classes to support data management, queries, web mapping services and analyses: Marine Protected Areas (MPA), Fee, Easements and Combined. The data contained in the MPA Feature class are provided directly by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Marine Protected Areas Center (MPA, http://marineprotectedareas.noaa.gov ) tracking the National Marine Protected Areas System. The Easements feature class contains data provided directly from the National Conservation Easement Database (NCED, http://conservationeasement.us ) The MPA and Easement feature classes contain some attributes unique to the sole source databases tracking them (e.g. Easement Holder Name from NCED, Protection Level from NOAA MPA Inventory). The "Combined" feature class integrates all fee, easement and MPA features as the best available national inventory of protected areas in the standard PAD-US framework. In addition to geographic boundaries, PAD-US describes the protection mechanism category (e.g. fee, easement, designation, other), owner and managing agency, designation type, unit name, area, public access and state name in a suite of standardized fields. An informative set of references (i.e. Aggregator Source, GIS Source, GIS Source Date) and "local" or source data fields provide a transparent link between standardized PAD-US fields and information from authoritative data sources. The areas in PAD-US are also assigned conservation measures that assess management intent to permanently protect biological diversity: the nationally relevant "GAP Status Code" and global "IUCN Category" standard. A wealth of attributes facilitates a wide variety of data analyses and creates a context for data to be used at local, regional, state, national and international scales. More information about specific updates and changes to this PAD-US version can be found in the Data Quality Information section of this metadata record as well as on the PAD-US website, http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/data/history/.) Due to the completeness and complexity of these data, it is highly recommended to review the Supplemental Information Section of the metadata record as well as the Data Use Constraints, to better understand data partnerships as well as see tips and ideas of appropriate uses of the data and how to parse out the data that you are looking for. For more information regarding the PAD-US dataset please visit, http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/. To find more data resources as well as view example analysis performed using PAD-US data visit, http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/resources/. The PAD-US dataset and data standard are compiled and maintained by the USGS Gap Analysis Program, http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/ . For more information about data standards and how the data are aggregated please review the “Standards and Methods Manual for PAD-US,” http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/data/standards/ .

美国地质调查局（USGS）美国保护区数据库（PAD-US）是美国全国范围内的保护区名录，涵盖公共开放空间以及自愿提供的私人保护区，被地籍主题下的A-16国家地理空间数据资产收录（http://www.fgdc.gov/ngda-reports/NGDA_Datasets.html）。PAD-US是一项持续推进的项目，已发布多个版本的空间数据库，收录旨在保护生物多样性以及其他自然、休闲或文化用途的区域，这些区域通过法律或其他有效手段进行管理以实现上述目标。该地理数据库绘制并记录了公共开放空间与其他保护区的信息，绝大多数区域为完全所有权归属的公共土地；不过长期地役权、租赁协议、各类协定或机构管理计划中记载的行政指定区域均可被纳入该数据库。PAD-US数据库致力于构建一套完整的“最佳可用”保护区（含陆地与水域）名录，涵盖管理机构与组织提供的各类数据。本数据集由多家合作方与数据提供方联合构建（http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/stewards/），如需了解更多合作相关信息以及主要合作方的链接，请查阅本元数据记录的“补充信息”章节。由于本数据集是多源数据的汇编成果，其数据完整性、准确性与比例尺可能存在差异。联邦与州级数据整体较为完备，而地方政府及私人保护区的覆盖度约为50%，具体取决于各州的数据管理能力，各州的完整性评估情况可访问http://www.protectedlands.net/partners。鉴于联邦与州级数据已基本完备，当前工作重点正转向完善地方政府及自愿提供的私人保护区名录。PAD-US地理数据库包含超过25个属性字段与4个要素类，以支撑数据管理、查询、网络制图服务与分析工作，分别为：海洋保护区（Marine Protected Areas, MPA）、完全所有权（Fee）、地役权（Easements）以及综合类（Combined）。MPA要素类的数据由美国国家海洋和大气管理局（National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA）海洋保护区中心直接提供，该中心负责追踪美国国家海洋保护区系统（http://marineprotectedareas.noaa.gov）。地役权要素类的数据直接来自国家保护地役权数据库（National Conservation Easement Database, NCED，http://conservationeasement.us）。MPA与地役权要素类包含部分仅在其来源数据库中存在的专属属性，例如来自NCED的地役权持有人名称以及来自NOAA MPA名录的保护等级。“综合类”要素类整合了所有完全所有权、地役权及MPA要素，是标准PAD-US框架下最佳可用的全国保护区名录。除地理边界外，PAD-US还通过一系列标准化字段记录了保护机制类别，例如完全所有权、地役权、指定区域及其他类型、所有者与管理机构、指定类型、区域名称、面积、公共访问权限以及州名等信息。一组详实的参考字段，即聚合来源、GIS来源、GIS来源日期，以及“本地”或源数据字段，实现了标准化PAD-US字段与权威数据源信息之间的透明关联。PAD-US中的保护区还被赋予了用于评估永久保护生物多样性管理意图的保护措施标识：国内通用的“GAP状态码”以及全球通用的国际自然保护联盟（IUCN）保护等级标准。丰富的属性字段支持各类数据分析，并为数据在地方、区域、州级、国家级乃至国际尺度下的应用提供了依据。关于本PAD-US版本的具体更新与变更信息，可查阅本元数据记录的“数据质量信息”章节以及PAD-US官方网站http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/data/history/。鉴于本数据集的完整性与复杂性，强烈建议查阅元数据记录的“补充信息”章节以及“数据使用限制”部分，以便更好地了解数据合作情况，同时获取数据合理使用的建议与方法，以及如何筛选所需数据。如需了解PAD-US数据集的更多信息，请访问http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/；如需获取更多数据资源以及查看使用PAD-US数据开展的分析案例，请访问http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/resources/。PAD-US数据集及其数据标准由美国地质调查局（USGS）间隙分析项目汇编并维护，官方网址为http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/。如需了解更多关于数据标准以及数据聚合方式的信息，请查阅《PAD-US标准与方法手册》，网址为http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/data/standards/。