Database Design
During 2008-2009, the PAD-US Partnership developed a preliminary design for an improved national inventory of protected areas. This design project was supported by grants from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the U.S. Geological Survey Gap Analysis Program. In 2010, the Partnership concluded the design phase, publishing its overall recommendations in the report,A Map for the Future (download PDF). In addition, a technical report was also published, outlining database design issues, background and potential technical strategies. The recommendations of the Partnership were informed by the prior GIS inventory work of the U.S. Geological Survey Gap Analysis Program and the Conservation Biology Institute.
DESIGN PROPOSAL: The proposed overall structure and attribute framework of the full PAD-US are illustrated in the diagrams at right, which include an image of the main geometric data relationships and the core attributes of the data. The concept for the geometry involves a primary feature class based on who owns a protected area, with related feature classes for the types of protection that may apply to that property - these are defined more fully in an interim classification document prepared by USGS GAP, called the Master Stewardship List (a table that defines specific federal protections and generic state and local protections, such as Wilderness Areas, ACECs, state parks, city parks, etc., and can be used to set default gap scores for conservation protection levels).
PROTECTED AREAS: The PAD-US recommendation considers "protected areas" to be any lands dedicated to the preservation of biological diversity and to other natural, recreation and cultural uses, and managed for these purposes through legal or other effective means. In the future, this PAD-US definition may encompass marine protected areas, as well as lands conserved through time-limited policies or legal agreements.
FOCUS ON FEE LANDS: The initial focus of the PAD-US recommendation is on fee-owned lands that are protected in perpetuity (efforts to incorporate data on private land easements will likely be undertaken in a parallel effort). PAD-US begins with emphasis on lands critical for biodiversity preservation, but at the same time seeks to enhance data on all recreation and other open space resource lands. Additional protected areas data may be considered in the future, such as marine protected areas, lands protected for limited periods of time, and other types of restrictions.
DATA AGGREGATION STRATEGY: In general, the PAD-US proposal recommends the national inventory be developed by aggregating federal agency data, state by state data and data from national conservation organizations. A critical element in the overall PAD-US approach is to provide support to states to improve their protected area inventories.
CURRENT STATUS OF DESIGN: The recommendations summarized above are being used by both the USGS GAP program and the Conservation Biology Institute in the preparation of their respective data sets. Over time, it is expected that these two data streams will be integrated into a single primary data inventory, with associated products published from them as needed.