Protected Areas of the United States (PAD-US)

VersHist_PADUS.txt

Version History for

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gap Analysis Project (GAP), 2025, Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US) 4.1: U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), https://doi.org/10.5066/P96WBCHS .

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Version 1.0 first posted - April 2009 

Original release of the Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US) by the USGS Gap Analysis Program (GAP) on behalf of the PAD-US Partnership to the UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Center (WCMC). This was the first demonstration of the PAD-US Partnership that seeks to improve efficiency and leverage resources in protected areas data aggregation and maintenance. The geodatabase standardized regional GAP updates (southwest, southeast, and middle US) with PAD-US Partner data in the northwest (Conservation Biology Institute) and northeast (The Nature Conservancy). GAP worked with WCMC to assign International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Categories to protected areas in PAD-US that meet the IUCN definition of protection as, "A clearly defined geographical space, recognized, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values." Over 22,000 US protected areas were submitted to WCMC for inclusion in the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) available to view or download from: https://www.protectedplanet.net/ .

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Revised - May 2010 (Version 1.1) 

Changes in Version 1.1

* Complete updates (best available attributes, line work, and conservation measures) in the northwest states of WA, OR, ID, WY, MT in partnership with the BLM and USFS.
* Complete California update integrating California Protected Areas Database (CPAD) (best available attributes, line work, and conservation measures) into PAD-US in partnership with GreenInfo Network.
* Complete updates (best available attributes, line work, and conservation measures) in the northeast states of ME, VT, NH, MA, CT, RI, NY, NJ, DE, PA, OH, WV, MD, VA in partnership with The Nature Conservancy's Eastern Regional Office.
* Complete national update from The Nature Conservancy's Conservation Data Information Systems (CDIS) Unit including nature preserves and publicly available conservation easements.
* A new core attribute schema with "Category" (Fee or Easement parcel), "Manager Name", "Secondary Designation Name"" and "Status" (Designated or Proposed site) to complement existing fields in PAD-US version 1 such as "Owner Type", "Owner Name" and "Primary Designation Type" developed with the PAD-US Technical Team.
* Updated IUCN Category conservation measures.
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Revised - April 2011 (Version 1.2)

Changes in Version 1.2

Updates to PAD-US 1.2 were generally focused on federal and territorial lands. This update includes:
* National Park Service (NPS) parcel data and GAP Status Code review in partnership with NPS Lands and NPScape.
* Official Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), documented in the current NOAA MPA Inventory (March 2010) as member or eligible MPAs for the National System of MPAs.
* National Department of Defense (DOD) lands update in partnership with DOD Partners in Flight.
* National wilderness area updates signed into law in the Omnibus Public Lands Act of 2009 thanks to the Wilderness Institute.
* Current BLM National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) protected areas with special assistance from the BLM Division of Lands, Realty, and Cadastral Survey.
Note: NLCS National Trails and Wild and Scenic Rivers were not included in this update as they are represented in line format. GAP will integrate these protected areas later this year when polygon data representing their protected areas is available
* Protected areas and GAP Status Codes in the U.S. Virgin Islands in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service staff at the International Institute of Tropical Forestry.
* Pacific Islands (American Samoa, Guam, Palau, Mariana Islands, Marshall Islands, and Federated States of Micronesia) protected areas and GAP Status Codes in collaboration with USGS staff from the Pacific Biodiversity Information Forum (PBIF).
* New protected areas and GAP Status Code review of Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) lands thanks to WDFW staff.
* Results of recommendations from the PAD-US Technical Team to reorganize and refine the Primary Designation Type field to improve database queries.

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Revised - November 2012 (Version 1.3) 
https://doi.org/10.5066/F79Z92XD 

Changes in Version 1.3

Updates to 1.3 were generally focused on state lands, easements, marine protected areas, and Date of Establishment. Specific changes include:
* A revised structure with four feature classes and associated attributes: marine protected areas, fee protection, conservation easements, and a combined file that integrates all. GAP also developed an analysis file that eliminates the multiple overlaps (legitimate and boundary errors) that exist in protected areas data. 
* State, local government, and private protected area updates delivered from PAD-US State Data Stewards: CO (Colorado State University), FL (Florida Natural Areas Inventory), ID (Idaho Fish and Game), MA (The Commonwealth's Office of Geographic Information Systems, MassGIS), MO (University of Missouri, MoRAP), MT (Montana Natural Heritage Program), NM (Natural Heritage New Mexico), OR (Oregon Natural Heritage Program), VA (Department of Conservation and Recreation, Virginia Natural Heritage Program). GAP prioritized the development of a State Data Steward Network following the PAD-US Design Project and continues to invest accordingly. FY11 Data Stewards delivered seven state updates in September 2012 (WA, WY, UT, KY, NM, GA, MS) for integration into the National Conservation Easement Database (NCED) and PAD-US v1.4 while FY12 Steward deliveries (NV, AZ, KS, OK, TX, IN, AL, NJ, AK) are expected September 2013.
* Integration of non-sensitive National Conservation Easement Database (NCED) easements through July 2012 with PAD-US version 1.2 easements. Duplicates have been removed. NCED and PAD-US are linked via Source UID in the PAD-US version 1.3 Easement feature class. Easements provided by PAD-US State Data Stewards are sent to NCED for UID assignment and integration.
* Select local government (i.e. county, city) protected areas aggregated by the Trust for Public Land(TPL) for their Conservation Almanac not previously available in the PAD-US Inventory.
* A new "Date of Establishment" field that identifies the year an area was designated or otherwise protected, attributed for 86% of GAP Status Code 1 and 2 protected areas. Additional dates will be provided in future updates.
* A national wilderness area update from wilderness.net 
* The "Access" field that describes public access to protected areas as defined by data stewards or categorical assignment. The new "Access Source" field to document assignment methods. GAP plans to expand available recreation data in future updates.
* The transfer of conservation measures (i.e. GAP Status Codes, IUCN Categories) and documentation (i.e. GAP Code Source, GAP Code Date) from PAD-US version 1.2 where appropriate. GAP is meeting with UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Center (WCMC) to update the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA, protectedplanet.net) with PAD-US version 1.3 in March 2013.
* Official (member and eligible) Marine Protected Areas (MPA) from the NOAA MPA Inventory (March 2011, www.mpa.gov) translated into the PAD-US schema with conservation measures transferred from PAD-US version 1.2 or categorically assigned to new protected areas in collaboration with NOAA and WCMC. GAP identified MPA records that overlap existing protected areas in the PAD-US Fee feature class (i.e. PADUS Overlap field in MPA feature class). For example, many National Wildlife Refuges and National Parks are also MPAs and are represented in both the PAD-US MPA and Fee feature classes.
Note: NLCS National Trails and Wild and Scenic Rivers were not included in this update as they are represented in line format. GAP will integrate these protected areas as polygon data becomes available.
* Protected areas and GAP Status Codes in the U.S. Virgin Islands in collaboration with the US Forest Service staff at the International Institute of Tropical Forestry.
* Pacific Islands (American Samoa, Guam, Palau, Mariana Islands, Marshall Islands, and Federated States of Micronesia) protected areas and GAP Status Codes in collaboration with USGS staff from the Pacific Biodiversity Information Forum (PBIF).
* New protected areas and GAP Status Code review of Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) lands thanks to WDFW staff.
* Results of recommendations from the PAD-US Technical Team to reorganize and refine the Primary Designation Type field to improve database queries.
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Revised - May 2016 (Version 1.4) 
https://doi.org/10.5066/F7G73BSZ 

Changes in Version 1.4

This is a major update including:
* Full replacement of federal lands, developed with the FGDC Federal Lands Working Group (https://communities.geoplatform.gov/ngda-govunits/federal-lands-workgroup/ )
* Twenty PAD-US State Steward Network submissions: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, IN, KS, KY, MS, NE, NC, NV, OK, OR, SC, TX, UT, WA and WY.
* The Nature Conservancy (TNC) owned lands.
* Conservation easements from the National Conservation Easement Database(NCED), suitable for distribution in the public domain.
* Trust for Public Land(TPL) contribution of local government areas in 13 States.
* National Marine Protected Areas (MPA) from the NOAA MPA Center.
* Conservation measures reviews ("GAP Status Code", "IUCN Category").
* Additional standardized "Designation Type" categories.
* New standardized "Manager Type" and "Manager Name" fields.
* Additional "Date of Establishment" for trends analyses (field in development)
* "Public Access" review by select PAD-US Stewards and federal partners.
* Available parcel data dissolved on PAD-US attributes to increase database performance.
* Many new standard layers to view and interpret PAD-US.
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Revised - September 2018 (Version 2.0) 
https://doi.org/10.5066/P955KPLE 

Changes in Version 2.0

This is a major update including:
* Expanded database structure with new layers: the geodatabase feature class structure now includes five feature classes separating fee owned lands, conservation (and other) easements, management designations overlapping fee lands, marine areas, proclamation boundaries, and various "Combined" feature classes (e.g. "Fee" + "Easement" + "Designation" feature classes).
* Major update of the Federal estate including data from 8 agencies: Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), National Park Service (NPS), Forest Service (USFS), Department of Defense (DOD), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). The U.S. Census Bureau also provided updated State jurisdictional boundaries, the authoritative standard to attribute "State Name" in PAD-US. Data from the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), Department of Energy (DOE), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), and Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) were transferred from PAD-US 1.4 as best available data. The Federal update was developed in close collaboration with the FGDC Federal Lands Working Group (FLWG) (https://communities.geoplatform.gov/ngda-govunits/federal-lands-workgroup/ ). Federal lands data include those administered under fee title (e.g. 'National Forest', 'National Park', 'National Wildlife Refuge'), congressional designations (e.g. 'Wilderness Area', 'Wild and Scenic River'), Presidential proclamations (e.g. 'National Monument'), administrative protected areas (e.g. BLM 'Area of Critical Environmental Concern', USFS 'Research Natural Area') and conservation easements. The new 'Proclamation' feature class includes boundaries that provide additional context for the 'Fee', 'Designation', or 'Easement' feature classes, suitable for display as an outline because internal ownership is not represented. These include Military Lands, Proclamation (National Park Service and Forest Service), or Approved Acquisition Boundaries (Fish and Wildlife Service). Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) American Indian and Alaskan Native Lands are not included in PAD-US 2.0.
* Major updates in 30 States, plus limited additions in 16 other States following the integration of nonprofit partner databases as described below. The PAD-US State Data-Steward Network provided 12 State updates (including State, local government and (or) privately protected fee lands only) in California, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. States and Territories without updates were transferred from PAD-US 1.4. Information regarding State data-stewards is available here: http://www.protectedlands.net/data-stewards/ .
* The Nature Conservancy's (TNC) Secured Lands 2015 Public Database (http://www.conservationgateway.org/ConservationByGeography/NorthAmerica/UnitedStates/edc/reportsdata/terrestrial/secured/Pages/default.aspx) completely replaced non-Federal data in an additional 9 States and the District of Columbia across the eastern seaboard including States without PAD-US updates since 2014 or where no active State Steward is available for Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont. In addition, new protected areas were added to help complete the inventory in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. Please note differences in standards exist. The Nature Conservancy integrates overlapping designations directly into fee ownership. Efforts to improve alignment with PAD-US are in progress.
* Ducks Unlimited (DU, https://www.ducks.org) integrated Conservation and Recreation Lands (CARL) data (non-Federal only) in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin. DU will no longer maintain CARL and will submit updates directly to USGS for future PAD-US updates.
* The Trust for Public Land's (TPL) Conservation Almanac (https://www.conservationalmanac.org) database added protected areas (non-Federal) to PAD-US in 46 States including Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Montana, North Carolina, New Jersey, Oregon, and South Carolina that had more than 50 new additions. Please note that agency source data are not reflected in PAD-US 'Local' fields. 'Local Designation Type' includes National Conservation Easement Database (NCED) descriptions while 'Local Unit Name', 'Local Manager' and 'Local Owner' reflect public spending information collected for the Conservation Almanac. Spending attributes do not always reflect the original spatial data provided by managing agencies. Efforts to improve alignment with PAD-US are in progress.
* The Nature Conservancy Lands (TNC, https://www.tnclands.tnc.org/) database update: the national source of lands owned in fee or managed by TNC. Please note that TNC shared easements with the National Conservation Easement Database (NCED) team for integration prior to the NCED delivery for PAD-US.
* Complete National Conservation Easement Database update (NCED, https://www.conservationeasement.us): Integration of non-sensitive easements (suitable for publication in the public domain) from NCED, provided by NCED Partners Ducks Unlimited and the Trust for Public Land. Federal easements are compiled by USGS in cooperation with the FLWG and shared with Ducks Unlimited for NCED integration.
* Complete National Marine Protected Areas (MPA) update: from the NOAA MPA Inventory (https://marineprotectedareas.noaa.gov). This update includes significant changes to GAP Status Code and IUCN Category following NOAA's conservation measures review.
* First integration of Bureau of Energy Ocean Management (BOEM, https://www.boem.gov/) managed marine lands: BOEM submitted Outer Continental Shelf Area lands managed for natural resources (minerals, oil and gas), a significant and new addition to PAD-US.
* Fee boundary overlap assessment: topology overlaps in the PAD-US 2.0 'Fee' feature class have been identified and are available for user and data-steward reference. Users are encouraged to review overview these overlaps prior to analyses involving fee lands data by reviewing the PAD-US 2.0 Topology Overlap Assessment referenced in the Logical_Consistency_Report Section of PAD-US 2.0 metadata. The assessment identifies all overlaps (minimum distance between feature coordinates to evaluate overlap relationship = 0.05 meter), large (greater than 5 acres) and small (less than 5 acres) overlaps between Federal agency lands and between Federal and State agency lands data in the Fee feature class.
See PAD-US Metadata and Supplemental_Info_Readme.txt for more information, including a summary of minor updates:https://doi.org/10.5066/P955KPLE

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Revised - September 2020 (Version 2.1) 

https://doi.org/10.5066/P92QM3NT 

Changes in Version 2.1

This PAD-US Version 2.1 dataset includes a variety of updates and new data from the previous Version 2.0 dataset, achieving the primary goal to "Complete the PAD-US Inventory by 2020" (https://www.usgs.gov/core-science-systems/science-analytics-and-synthesis/gap/science/pad-us-vision) by addressing known data gaps with newly available data. The following list summarizes the integration of "best available" spatial data to ensure public lands and other protected areas from all jurisdictions are represented in PAD-US, along with continued improvements and regular maintenance of the federal theme.

Completing the PAD-US Inventory:

1) Integration of over 75,000 city parks in all 50 States (and the District of Columbia) from The Trust for Public Land's (TPL) ParkServe data development initiative (https://parkserve.tpl.org/) added nearly 2.7 million acres of protected area and significantly reduced the primary known data gap in previous PAD-US versions (local government lands).

2) First-time integration of the Census American Indian/Alaskan Native Areas (AIA) dataset (https://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/TIGER2019/AIANNH) representing the boundaries for federally recognized American Indian reservations and off-reservation trust lands across the nation (as of January 1, 2020, as reported by the federally recognized tribal governments through the Census Bureau's Boundary and Annexation Survey) addressed another major PAD-US data gap.

3) Aggregation of nearly 5,000 protected areas owned by local land trusts in 13 states, aggregated by Ducks Unlimited through data calls for easements to update the National Conservation Easement Database (https://www.conservationeasement.us/), increased PAD-US protected areas by over 350,000 acres.

Maintaining regular Federal updates:

1) Major update of the Federal estate (fee ownership parcels, easement interest, and management designations), including authoritative data from 8 agencies: Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Census Bureau (Census), Department of Defense (DOD), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), National Park Service (NPS), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), U.S. Forest Service (USFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The federal theme in PAD-US is developed in close collaboration with the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Federal Lands Working Group (FLWG, https://communities.geoplatform.gov/ngda-govunits/federal-lands-workgroup/ );

2) Complete National Marine Protected Areas (MPA) update: from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) MPA Inventory, including conservation measure ('GAP Status Code', 'IUCN Category') review by NOAA;

Other changes:

1) PAD-US field name change - The "Public Access" field name changed from 'Access' to 'Pub_Access' to avoid unintended scripting errors associated with the script command 'access'.

2) Additional field - The "Feature Class" (FeatClass) field was added to all layers within PAD-US 2.1 (only included in the "Combined" layers of PAD-US 2.0 to describe which feature class data originated from).

3) Categorical GAP Status Code default changes - National Monuments are categorically assigned GAP Status Code = 2 (previously GAP 3), in the absence of other information, to better represent biodiversity protection restrictions associated with the designation. The Bureau of Land Management Areas of Environmental Concern (ACECs) are categorically assigned GAP Status Code = 3 (previously GAP 2) as the areas are administratively protected, not permanent. More information is available upon request.

4) Agency Name (FWS) geodatabase domain description changed to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (previously U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service).

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Revised - January 2022 (Version 3.0) 
Child item for PAD-US 3.0 National Poster Maps added - March 2023 

https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/61794fc2d34ea58c3c6f9f
https://doi.org/10.5066/P9Q9LQ4B

Changes in Version 3.0

This PAD-US Version 3.0 dataset includes a variety of updates and new data from the previous Version 2.1 dataset, achieving the primary goals to annually update and improve spatial data representing the federal estate for PAD-US applications, update state and local lands data, and expand automated data translation efforts to increase PAD-US update efficiency. The following list summarizes the integration of "best available" spatial data to ensure public lands and other protected areas from all jurisdictions are represented in PAD-US.

Federal updates:

1) Major update of the Federal estate (fee ownership parcels, easement interest, and management designations where available), including authoritative data from 8 agencies: Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Census Bureau (Census Bureau), Department of Defense (DOD), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), National Park Service (NPS), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), U.S. Forest Service (USFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The federal theme in PAD-US is developed in close collaboration with the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Federal Lands Working Group (FLWG, https://communities.geoplatform.gov/ngda-govunits/federal-lands-workgroup/ ).

2) Improved the representation of National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lands, in collaboration with agency data-stewards, in response to feedback from the PAD-US Team and users.

3) Added a Federal Data Reference look up table to the PAD-US geodatabase to allow users to extract data provided directly (or recommended) by federal managing agencies from the full PAD-US inventory.

4) Scripted the translation of Department of Defense, Census Bureau, and Natural Resource Conservation Service source data into the PAD-US format to increase update efficiency.

5) Revised conservation measures (GAP Status Code, IUCN Category) to more accurately represent protected and conserved areas (e.g. FWS Waterfowl Production Area Easements). 

State updates:

1) California - added or updated state, regional, local, and nonprofit lands data from the California Protected Areas Database (CPAD), managed by GreenInfo Network, and integrated conservation and recreation measure changes following review by the data-steward. Developed a data translation script in collaboration with the data-steward to increase the efficiency of future PAD-US updates from CPAD. 

2) Virginia - added or updated state, local, and nonprofit protected areas data (or removed legacy data) from the Virginia Conservation Lands Database, provided by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation's Natural Heritage Program, and integrated conservation and recreation measure changes following review by the data-steward.

3) West Virginia - added or updated state, local, and nonprofit protected areas data provided by the West Virginia University, GIS Technical Center.

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Revised - April 2024 (Version 4.0)
 
https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/65294599d34e44db0e2ed7cf
https://doi.org/10.5066/P96WBCHS

Changes in Version 4.0

This PAD-US Version 4.0 dataset includes a variety of updates and new data from the previous Version 3.0 dataset.  PAD-US products like the Spatial Analysis and Statistics, the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) Submission, and National Poster Maps are included as child items of this data release.  Consolidating all PAD-US products in one data release helps achieve the goal of more frequent updates.   This release improves spatial data representing the federal lands, updates state and local lands data, and expand automated data translation efforts to increase PAD-US update efficiency. The following list summarizes the integration of "best available" spatial data to ensure public lands and other protected areas from all jurisdictions are represented in PAD-US.

Federal updates - The USGS remains committed to updating federal fee owned lands data and major designation changes in regular PAD-US updates, where authoritative data provided directly by managing agencies are available or alternative data sources are recommended. Revisions associated with the federal estate in this version include updates to the Federal estate (fee ownership parcels, easement interest, management designations, and proclamation boundaries), with authoritative data from 7 agencies: Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Census Bureau (Census Bureau), Department of Defense (DOD), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), National Park Service (NPS), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). The federal theme in PAD-US is developed in close collaboration with the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Federal Lands Working Group (FLWG, https://ngda-gov-units-geoplatform.hub.arcgis.com/pages/federal-lands-workgroup ). This includes improved the representation of boundaries and attributes for the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lands, in collaboration with agency data-stewards, in response to feedback from the PAD-US Team and stakeholders. Additionally, National Cemetery boundaries were added using geospatial boundary data provided by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and NASA boundaries were added using data contained in the USGS National Boundary Dataset (NBD).

State Updates - USGS is committed to building capacity in the state data steward network and the PAD-US Team to increase the frequency of state land and NGO partner updates, as resources allow. State Lands Workgroup ( https://ngda-gov-units-geoplatform.hub.arcgis.com/pages/state-lands-workgroup ) is focused on improving protected land inventories in PAD-US, increase update efficiency, and facilitate local review.  PAD-US 4.0 included updates and additions from the following seventeen states and territories: California (state, local, and nonprofit fee); Colorado (state, local, and nonprofit fee and easement); Georgia (state and local fee); Kentucky (state, local, and nonprofit fee and easement); Maine (state, local, and nonprofit fee and easement); Montana (state, local, and nonprofit fee); Nebraska (state fee); New Jersey (state, local, and nonprofit fee and easement); New York (state, local, and nonprofit fee and easement); North Carolina (state, local, and nonprofit fee); Pennsylvania (state, local, and nonprofit fee and easement); Puerto Rico (territory fee); Tennessee (land trust fee); Texas (state, local, and nonprofit fee); Virginia (state, local, and nonprofit fee); West Virginia (state, local, and nonprofit fee); and Wisconsin (state fee data). Additionally, the following datasets were incorporated from NGO data partners: Trust for Public Land (TPL) Parkserve (new fee and easement data); The Nature Conservancy (TNC) Lands (fee owned by TNC); TNC Northeast Secured Areas; Ducks Unlimited (land trust fee); and the National Conservation Easement Database (NCED). All state and NGO easement submissions are provided to NCED. 

Scripts used for the major PAD-US data processing steps were updated and refined during this PAD-US version cycle. This included updating the scripts to Python 3.0 to harness new features, modernizing to use current technology, as well as adding steps and automated processes new to the scripts to reduce manual data management steps and to provide consistent processing and process transparency. Polygons with over 100,000 vertices were identified. These polygons were simplified and densified to remove vertices closer than 5 meters. This leads to a slight alteration of source data but allows for inclusion in the WDPA as well as other analysis and performance increases. 

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Revised - March 2025 (Version 4.1)
 
https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/65294599d34e44db0e2ed7cf
https://doi.org/10.5066/P96WBCHS

Changes in Version 4.1

PAD-US version 4.1 includes new and updated data from the following data providers. All other data were transferred from previous versions of PAD-US.

Federal updates - USGS remains committed to updating federal fee owned lands data and major designation changes in regular PAD-US updates, where authoritative data provided directly by managing agencies are available or alternative data sources are recommended. Revisions associated with the federal estate in this version include updates to the Federal estate (fee ownership parcels, easement interest, management designations, and proclamation boundaries), with authoritative data from two agencies, the Department of Defense (DOD) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). Additionally, unit names were updated to reflect recent name changes to Fort Benning, Fort Bragg, and Jocelyn Nungaray National Wildlife Refuge. The federal theme in PAD-US is developed in close collaboration with the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Federal Lands Working Group (FLWG, https://ngda-gov-units-geoplatform.hub.arcgis.com/pages/federal-lands-workgroup/ ). This includes improved the representation of boundaries and attributes for the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lands, in collaboration with agency data-stewards, in response to feedback from the PAD-US Team and stakeholders.

State Updates - USGS is committed to building capacity in the state data steward network and the PAD-US Team to increase the frequency of state land and NGO partner updates, as resources allow. State Lands Workgroup (SLWG, https://ngda-gov-units-geoplatform.hub.arcgis.com/pages/state-lands-workgroup ) is focused on improving protected land inventories in PAD-US, increase update efficiency, and facilitate local review.  This version includes updates and additions from the following two states: Texas (state, local, and nonprofit fee) and Arizona (state, local, and nonprofit fee). All state and NGO easement submissions are provided to NCED.  For more information regarding the PAD-US dataset please visit, https://www.usgs.gov/programs/gap-analysis-project/science/protected-areas.

A new workflow management system that centralizes PAD-US updates, allows multiple people to work on jobs at the same time, and automates standard tasks was deployed during this update cycle.  This system created new and leveraged existing tools to improve data quality, increase communication, and simplify training.  An online PAD-US Data Steward Submission form was also deployed allowing stewards to submit data for inclusion in PAD-US and update their agencies information in the PAD-US Stewards Database.  These tools were designed to boost productivity saving both time and resources in the PAD-US update process.  Scripts used for the major PAD-US data processing steps have also been continually updated, refined, incorporated into this new automated workflow process. This included converting scripts to online geoprocessing tools and adding workflow steps to the new automated workflow process that reduce manual data management steps, provide consistent processing, and increase process transparency. These updates included adding several additional checks to the QA/QC, Reconciliation, and Conservation Measures scripts as well as developing a new Schema Compare script.  This has led to a reduction in the number of records that get flagged for manual review through increased script accuracy.