California Protected Lands and Waters Geospatial Data

2026 data from the State of California synthesizes multiple authoritative sources on durably protected lands and coastal waters to support the state's 30x30 conservation goal. The dataset integrates the California Protected Areas Database (CPAD), the California Conservation Easement Database (CCED), and the federal Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US). It provides geospatial boundaries for parcels, holdings, and conservation easements managed for biodiversity and open space.

Use Cases

• Analyze spatial distribution of CPAD holdings and CCED easements to measure progress toward California's 30x30 conservation targets.
• Map biodiversity protection levels by overlaying PAD-US GAP status codes 1 and 2 with other protected area boundaries.
• Identify conservation management strategies by examining attributes like manager, access policy, and Superunit designations within CPAD.
• Assess the extent of durably protected working lands by filtering CCED easements designated for farm or ranch use.

Strengths

• Integrates the most accurate parcel-level data from CPAD and CCED, which are the primary sources for California open space.
• Includes federal PAD-US data with GAP status codes for standardized assessment of biodiversity protection levels.
• Data is current as of March 2026, supporting tracking of the 2030 30x30 goal.
• Synthesizes boundaries from National Parks, Monuments, Wild and Scenic Rivers, and Wilderness Areas from managing agencies.

Limitations

• PAD-US boundaries may not align with parcel-level data from CPAD/CCED, creating potential spatial inconsistencies.
• The dataset's size, row count, and specific column schema are not provided, complicating direct analytical use.
• Relies on the update cycles and methodologies of several underlying databases, which may introduce latency or integration challenges.

Provenance

Source

State of California, synthesizing data from GreenInfo Network (CPAD, CCED), USGS (PAD-US), and various federal and state managing agencies.

Collection Method

Compilation and synthesis of the best available data from multiple public sources, with CPAD and CCED providing core parcel and easement information.

Time Range

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Freshness

Last updated March 2026; update frequency is not specified.

Geography

Lands and coastal waters of California, United States.