Protected Areas Database of the United States

PAD-US is the official U.S. inventory of protected areas, compiled from agency data. The geodatabase describes areas using thirty-six attributes across five feature classes: Fee, Designation, Easement, Marine, and Proclamation. Managed by the U.S. Geological Survey, the current version was released in January 2022.

Use Cases

• Analyze the distribution of protected areas by FeatClass (e.g., Fee, Easement, Marine) to understand land management types.
• Assess the coverage of specific Designation categories (e.g., 'Wilderness Area', 'National Monument') for conservation planning.
• Map and query the Combined feature class to support biodiversity assessments across the U.S. protected areas network.
• Extract authoritative federal data using the Federal Data Reference lookup table for agency-specific analyses.

Strengths

• Nationally recognized as an A-16 National Geospatial Data Asset in the Cadastre Theme.
• Describes protected areas using thirty-six attributes for detailed characterization.
• Compiles 'best available' data from managing agencies and organizations across the U.S.

Limitations

• The dataset is a series-level metadata file in XML format, not the full spatial database itself.
• Specific row counts, column details, and sample data for this metadata file are unavailable.
• Relies on voluntary data contributions from organizations, which may lead to inconsistencies in coverage or timeliness.

Provenance

Source

United States Geological Survey (USGS) Gap Analysis Project.

Collection Method

Compiled from 'best available' spatial data provided by federal, state, and nonprofit managing agencies.

Time Range

Ongoing project with version history; current core spatial data version is from January 2022.

Freshness

The metadata record was last updated in January 2026, referencing a core dataset version from January 2022.

Geography

United States, including public lands and voluntarily provided private protected areas.