Development of Protected Areas Digital Spatial Data for the Desert LCC

The Desert LCC identified the need for a Protected Areas spatial database that showed land ownership, management designations and conservation status for lands in the United States and Mexico. However, the existing Protected Areas database was found to be particularly prone to boundary and database errors that affected its potential use. This USGS project will develop a single, seamless, error-free Protected Areas dataset for the full geographic scope of the Desert LCC. This will involve acquiring numerous spatial layers from Federal, State, and NGO organizations which are responsible for administering and/or managing areas that have a designated protected status. Protected Area will be categorized as defined by the USGS-GAP program (in the U.S.) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN; for both the U.S. and Mexico). The spatial dataset will include metadata that is compliant with the Federal Geographic Data Committee’s Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata.