Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US) v. 1.4 - World Database of Protected Areas (WDPA) Submission (Provisional Release)
Dates
Release Date
2016-04
Summary
The USGS Gap Analysis Program (GAP) manages a Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US) that includes areas dedicated to the preservation of biological diversity and to other natural, recreation and cultural uses, managed for these purposes through legal or other effective means. The United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) World Conservation Monitoring Center (WCMC) tracks global progress toward biodiversity protection targets (Aichi Target 11) enacted by the Convention for Biological Diversity(CBD) through the World Database for Protected Areas (WDPA). In 2008, GAP began collaborating with WCMC and International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) protected areas experts to submit data for the WDPA following [...]
Summary
The USGS Gap Analysis Program (GAP) manages a Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US) that includes areas dedicated to the preservation of biological diversity and to other natural, recreation and cultural uses, managed for these purposes through legal or other effective means. The United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) World Conservation Monitoring Center (WCMC) tracks global progress toward biodiversity protection targets (Aichi Target 11) enacted by the Convention for Biological Diversity(CBD) through the World Database for Protected Areas (WDPA).
In 2008, GAP began collaborating with WCMC and International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) protected areas experts to submit data for the WDPA following PAD-US updates. As a requirement to fulfill GAP's mission to assess management intent for the long-term protection of biological diversity, PAD-US includes a nationally relevant conservation measure, the GAP Status Code. WCMC and IUCN suggest GAP Status Code 1 and 2 protected areas for delivery from PAD-US as these, primarily managed for biodiversity protection; meet the definition of protection for inclusion in the WDPA.
IUCN protected areas in the U.S. are managed by 1000's of agencies and organizations across the country and include over 34,000 sites such as some National Parks, National Wildlife Refuges, National Monuments, Wilderness Areas, State Parks, State Wildlife Management Areas, Local Nature Preserves, City Natural Areas, TNC Nature Preserves. Over 8 million acres of conservation easements area also included.
While GAP has provided several WDPA updates, the most recent is a derivative product from PAD-US 1.4 (WDPA_Dec2015_Schema_PADUS1_4Mang_NM.zip). Areas that meet the definition of IUCN protection are assigned IUCN Management Categories for WDPA submissions. GAP encourages the participation of managing agencies in this process. GAP translates the PAD-US derivative into the WDPA schema for efficient aggregation.
To prepare for translation we begin with a selection of records in the PAD-US combined file that are GAP Status Code 1 and 2 lands. These areas are matched, both spatially and by attributes, to the existing WDPA dataset and WDPA site codes (unique identifiers assigned by WCMC) are transferred to PAD-US data. As the WDPA is a global dataset, their data standards require simplification to reduce the number of records included, focusing on the protected area site name (NAME) and management (MANG_AUTH).
The WDPA schema allows for multiple managers in MANG_AUTH as well as multiple states in the WDPA location field (SUB_LOC), unlike the separation enforced by PAD-US domains. PAD-US data are mapped into these fields with PAD-US Manger Name (Mang_Name) and State Name (State_Nm) concatenated into the WDPA schema as needed. The WDPA also tracks the following information loaded directly from PAD-US or categorically assigned:
WDPA Status Year (STATUS-YR) transferred from PAD-US Date_Est (Date of Establishment)
WDPA Designation (DESG) and Designation in English (DESIG_ENG) transferred from PAD-US Designation Type (Loc_Ds)
WDPA Name (NAME) and Original Name (ORIG_NAME) transferred from PAD-US Unit Name (Unit_Nm, with Designations contained in the name removed following WDPA standard)
WDPA IUCN Category (IUCN) transferred from PAD-US IUCN Category (IUCN_Cat)
GIS derived area calculated in square km
No take info associated with Marine Protected Areas (MPA) transferred from PAD-US MPA feature class (Prot_Lvl)
WDPA Governance Type (GOV_TYPE) from PAD-US Manager Type (Mang_Type, converted to WDPA schema)
WDPA Owner Type (OWN_TYPE) from PAD-US Owner Type (Own_Type, converted to WDPA Schema)
Categorically assign WDPA STATUS as "Designated"
Categorically assign WDPA MARINE = 1 for MPAs from PAD-US
Categorically assign WDPA PA_DEF = 1 as all areas submitted from PAD-US meet the IUCN definition of Protection
Categorically assign WDPA DESIG_TYPE = National as all sites included from PAD-US are national Designations, this Field in the WDPA tracks things like International RAMSAR sites
Categorically assign WDPA Parent_ISO3 = USA for All US Sites and US Territories; = ISO 3 letter code for USA Free Association Territories (I.E. PLW for Palau)
Categorically assign ISO 3 letter codes = USA for All US Sites and US Territories; = ISO 3 Letter codes for each USA Free Association Territories (I.E. PLW for Palau)
The PAD-US version 1.4 derivative update will be available in the May 2016 version of the WDPA. Go to ProtectedPlanet.net to view or download data. Contact the PAD-US Data Manager (
jpmagee@usgs.gov) or WDPA Data Manager (
Brian.MacSharry@unep-wcmc.org) for more information.
Click on title to download individual files attached to this item.
WDPA_Dec2015_Schema_PADUS1_4Mang_NM.zip
110.46 MB
application/zip
Rights
The data you have secured from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) database identified as "PAD-US 1.4 WDPA Submission" have not received USGS approval and as such are provisional and subject to revision. The data are released on the condition that neither the USGS nor the U.S. Government shall be held liable for any damages resulting from its authorized or unauthorized use.
