# Protected Areas Database of the United States

USGS — version 4.1

## Description

This dataset (PAD-US) contains locations, geometries, and properties of protected areas across the United States, its territories, and marine jurisdictions. Records cover fee-owned lands, conservation easements, management designations, proclamation boundaries, and marine protected areas.

## Summary

- **ID:** e2f37407-c5f9-450e-ba62-6d2179291911
- **Type:** Vector
- **CRS:** ESRI:102039
- **Spatial coverage:** United States
- **Spatial resolution:** 
- **Temporal coverage:** 
- **Temporal resolution:** 

## Usage notes

This dataset records legal and administrative interests. Records can overlap. Each record represents a distinct legal or administrative interest, not necessarily a distinct physical area. A fee-owned parcel, a management designation within it, and an easement on top of it may each appear as separate intersecting records for the same location. Area calculations should account for this, since summing GIS acres variable across records will overstate the real protected area. Suitable for conservation screening, gap analysis, land management, and recreation access planning. Not appropriate for cadastral or legal boundary adjudication, and some boundaries carry explicit planning-only caveats.

## Variables

### access_date
- **Type:** str
Year public access variable was most recently assigned to record.

### access_source
- **Type:** str
Organisation and method used to assign public access variable.

### aggregator_source
- **Type:** str
Organisation credited with data aggregation, including the dataset version and source file reference. Format is 'aggregator name_PADUSversion_featureclass_filename_filetype'.

### category
- **Type:** str
General protection mechanism associated with record.

### comments
- **Type:** str
Free-text comments from the original data source, aggregator, or PAD-US Team.

### date_established
- **Type:** str
Year protected area was designated or otherwise established. Assigned using unit name variable and designation type variable as identifiers.

### designation_type
- **Type:** str
Standardised administrative designation type.

### feature_class
- **Type:** str
Original feature class a record occurred in before being combined into the dataset.

### gap_code_date
- **Type:** str
Year gap status variable was most recently assigned to record.

### gap_code_source
- **Type:** str
Organisation and method used to assign gap status variable.

### gap_status
- **Type:** str
GAP status code. The core conservation mandate metric assigned by the USGS Gap Analysis Project.

### geometry
- **Type:** wkb
Boundary geometry of protected area.

### gis_acres
- **Type:** int32
- **Units:** acres
Area of record polygon in acres, calculated from the geometry rounded to the nearest whole number.

### gis_source
- **Type:** str
Original source GIS file name as obtained by data aggregator.

### iucn_category
- **Type:** str
Management category, as defined by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

### iucn_category_date
- **Type:** str
Year iucn category variable value was most recently assigned to record.

### iucn_category_source
- **Type:** str
Organisation and method used to assign iucn category variable.

### local_designation
- **Type:** str
Designation type as provided in the source data, complementing standardised designation type variable with additional local detail.

### local_manager
- **Type:** str
Managing agency name as provided in the source data, complementing standardised manager name variable with additional local detail (e.g. 'Agoura Hills, City of' where manager name is 'City Land').

### local_name
- **Type:** str
Protected area name as provided in the source data, complementing standardised unit name variable with additional local detail.

### local_owner
- **Type:** str
Land owner name as provided in the source data, complementing standardised owner name variable with additional local detail (e.g. 'Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife' where owner name is 'State Fish and Wildlife').

### manager_name
- **Type:** str
Standardised name of managing agency. Uses same domain codes as owner name variable.

### manager_type
- **Type:** str
Standardised management type, assigned by crosswalk from manager name variable. Uses same domain codes as owner type variable.

### owner_name
- **Type:** str
Standardised name of land owner or holding agency.

### owner_type
- **Type:** str
Standardised ownership type, assigned by crosswalk from owner name variable.

### public_access
- **Type:** str
Level of public access permitted to protected area.

### source_date
- **Type:** str
Date the source GIS data was published or accessed by data aggregator.

### source_protected_area_id
- **Type:** str
Source protected area identifier as provided in the authoritative source data.

### state_name
- **Type:** str
U.S. state or territory of record, given as a USPS two-letter abbreviation.

### unit_name
- **Type:** str
Name of protected area unit, standardised to proper case without acronyms or special characters.

### wdpa_code
- **Type:** int32
WDPA Site Code assigned by the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) for areas submitted to the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA). See IBAT World Database on Protected and Conserved Areas dataset.

## Pricing

This dataset has no data acquisition cost.