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（United States Geological Survey, USGS）牵头的美国保护区数据库（Protected Areas Database of the United States, PAD-US）是美国官方的保护区名录，涵盖公共开放空间以及自愿报备的私人保护区，被归类为地籍主题（Cadastral Theme）下的A-16级国家地理空间数据资产（National Geospatial Data Asset, NGDA），详情可参见：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，收录致力于保护生物多样性及其他自然、休闲或文化用途的区域，这些区域通过法律或其他有效方式进行管理以达成上述目标。该地理数据库绘制并描述了公共开放空间及其他保护区的信息：绝大多数区域为全权所有的公共土地，但长期地役权、租赁协议、经机构管理方案备案的协定或行政认定区域亦可纳入其中。PAD-US数据库致力于打造一套完整的“最佳可用”保护区（含陆地与水域）名录，收录来自管理机构与组织的相关数据。本数据集由多家合作方与数据提供方联合构建（详见：http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/stewards/），如需了解合作伙伴详情及主要合作机构的链接，请参见本元数据记录的“补充信息”章节。由于本数据集是多源数据的整合成果，其数据完整性、准确性与尺度可能存在差异。联邦与州级数据整体较为完整，而地方政府及私人保护区的覆盖度约为50%，且依赖于各州的数据管理能力。各州的完整性评估详情可参见：http://www.protectedlands.net/partners。鉴于联邦与州级数据已具备较高完整性，当前工作重心已转向完善地方政府及自愿报备的私人保护区名录。PAD-US地理数据库包含超过25个属性字段与4个要素类，以支持数据管理、查询、网络制图服务与分析工作，这四类要素类分别为：海洋保护区（Marine Protected Areas, MPA）、全权所有（Fee）、地役权（Easements）与综合类（Combined）。其中，海洋保护区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，用于追踪美国国家海洋保护区系统（详情参见：http://marineprotectedareas.noaa.gov）。地役权要素类的数据源自国家保护地役权数据库（National Conservation Easement Database, NCED，详见：http://conservationeasement.us）。MPA与地役权要素类包含部分仅来自其源数据库的专属属性字段，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”要素类整合了所有全权所有、地役权与MPA要素，作为PAD-US标准框架下的最佳可用国家保护区名录。除地理边界外，PAD-US还通过一系列标准化字段描述了保护机制类别（如全权所有、地役权、行政认定及其他类型）、所有者与管理机构、认定类型、区域名称、面积、公共开放程度及州名。一套完整的引用信息（如聚合源、GIS源、GIS源日期）与“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收录的区域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：国内通用的GAP状态代码（GAP Status Code）以及全球通用的国际自然保护联盟类别（International Union for Conservation of Nature, IUCN）。丰富的属性字段支持多样化的数据分析，并为区域、州、国家乃至国际尺度的数据应用提供了支撑。本版本PAD-US的具体更新与变更详情，可参见本元数据记录的“数据质量信息”章节，以及PAD-US官方网站：http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/data/history/。鉴于本数据集的复杂性与完整性要求，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，以充分了解数据合作方信息，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及使用PAD-US数据完成的示例分析，请访问：http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/resources/。PAD-US数据集与数据标准由美国地质调查局间隙分析项目（USGS Gap Analysis Program）编制并维护，详情参见：http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/。如需了解更多数据标准及数据聚合方法，请查阅《PAD-US标准与方法手册》：http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/data/standards/。