Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US)

RESOURCE DESCRIPTION

The Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US) is the official inventory of protected open space in the US. It is used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to identify the owners of protected regions if an event for which NOAA is responding takes place within those regions. The types of protected areas contained in PAD-US include lands owned by the following federal agencies: Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), National Park Service (NPS), Forest Service (USFS), Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Department of Defense (DOD), NOAA, Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Additional protected areas owned by state and local governments are also available in PAD-US. The data provided in PAD-US include geographic boundaries of public land ownership; standardized and original land owner, land manager, management designation and parcel name descriptions, areas and the source of geographic information of each mapped land unit; and reference information. In addition to their emergency response applications, PAD-US data are used during planning to support biodiversity protection, reduce habitat loss, climate corridor planning, energy siting, and land management. PAD-US data maybe browsed in a map viewer online and downloaded by region of interest. Alternatively, PAD-US data may be directly downloaded in geospatial formats by state territory, Landscape Conservation Cooperative Unit, region, or for the entire nation.

BROAD DATA CATEGORIES

• Agriculture and natural resources
• Security

SPECIFIC DATA ELEMENTS

• Hurricane
• Earthquake
• Flood
• Nuclear detonation
• Agriculture and natural resources

GEOGRAPHIC COVERAGE

US