The Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US) is a comprehensive geospatial database of the country's protected and managed areas: every known area whose main purpose is conserving biodiversity, and the lands and waters that give the public access to nature. A National Geospatial Data Asset, it gathers management boundaries from authoritative sources and puts them into one standard format.
An example of the PAD-US national poster map. The full-size, current map is on the USGS protected-areas resources page. U.S. Geological Survey
Who builds it
The U.S. Geological Survey manages PAD-US, but it takes many partners — federal, state and nongovernmental — whose work fits its goals.
| Stewards | Coordinate through | Supply |
|---|---|---|
| Federal — geospatial staff of federal land management agencies and other federal stakeholders | the Federal Geographic Data Committee's Federal Lands Workgroup | federal protected areas; the land management agencies are the authoritative source |
| State and local — state agencies, local governments, universities and nongovernmental organizations | the State Land Working Group | state lands, plus local government and private lands |
| Nongovernmental organizations | directly with PAD-US | privately owned protected areas and easements, and some local parks |
More: PAD-US data stewards.
What it is used for
A detailed account of the nation's shared investment in protected land helps inform decisions on biodiversity conservation, climate, outdoor recreation, resource management, public health and emergency response — including wildland fire coordination. The agencies that contribute data use it for their own decisions too.
PAD-US gives summary statistics of land managed for biodiversity and for public access — nationally and by state, county, Department of the Interior region, congressional district, ecoregion and other units — and supplies key data for national efforts such as America the Beautiful and the American Conservation and Stewardship Atlas.
One example: the Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center (WyGISC) runs an online tool for cutthroat trout conservation. Using PAD-US, it can compare land ownership with the trout's historic and current range without gathering boundaries from many separate sources — helping state managers understand the species' health and conservation needs.
Where it is going
- USGS wants to work with Tribal communities to represent protected areas in Tribal lands and waters appropriately.
- PAD-US keeps working with Mexico and Canada to map North America's protected areas, through the North American Intergovernmental Committee on Cooperation for Wilderness and Protected Areas Conservation (NAWPA).
- It sends U.S. data to the World Database of Protected Areas through the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC).
Goals for 2023–2025
- Bring in more state data stewards, so each state's data are more complete and useful to everyone.
- Communicate with, coordinate and help state stewards regularly, so updates come more often from all 50 states and the territories.
- Release federal protected areas every year, which depends on federal stewards contributing annually.
Contributing data
USGS provides tools and guidance for stewards, including a PAD-US Data Manual on its website that sets out what submitted data need for successful integration. The PAD-US team can give further help.
Sources
Based on Help Build the Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US), U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2023–3013 (April 17, 2023), USGS Publications Warehouse, citing the USGS Gap Analysis Project's PAD-US 3.0 data release (2022); a work of the United States government in the public domain. A comment from Jason Writer of WyGISC is rewritten in hubnx's own words.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from pubs.usgs.gov
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