Data Process

PAD-US will be developed by using existing data inventories and improving their organization and the accuracy and comprehensiveness of their content. In general, PAD-US is built by integrating the land holdings of federal agencies (BLM, USFS, NPS, FWS, etc.) with individual inventories for each state, plus additional data from national non-profit organizations (The Nature Conservancy, etc.).

STATES ARE KEY: Over time, the PAD-US Partnership expects that every state will move toward maintaining a complete inventory of protected areas. State inventories can then be integrated through defined "crosswalk" routines into the other elements of PAD-US. While some states currently maintain comprehensive inventories, many do not yet do so. The Partnership is committed to assisting these states wherever possible, helping improve data gathering systems and the extent of actual inventories.

STATE STEWARDS: The PAD-US Partnership expects to work with state agencies and organizations to identify a primary steward for each state, who can be the main liaison and champion for protected areas data.

QUALITY CONTROL: The PAD-US Partnership will establish mechanisms to ensure effective quality control of the PAD-US data, including Gap score protocols, boundary conflict resolution and other issues that exist in maintaining this large inventory of protected lands.

DATABASE ADMINISTRATION: The PAD-US Partnership has designed the USGS Gap Analysis Program as the agency that will administer the physical PAD-US database. USGS GAP will manage security and technical structure and development of the system, working under the overall guidance of the PAD-US Partnership.

PRODUCT PUBLICATION: The PAD-US will be made available in a number of different formats, including conventional GIS formats (GDB, shape file, etc) and as a direct web service. The database will also be used to generate a number of custom data products (e.g., the U.S. submission to the World Database on Protected Areas).

FEEDBACK: As the PAD-US is developed, procedures will be put in place to ensure that user feedback is enabled, and that as improvements are made in the master national inventory that information is also transmitted back to source agencies and organizations for review and incorporation into their own data sets.