Microproduct Data GuideIntermediate

USGS PAD-US 4.1 Public Access

USGS protected-area polygons and public-access attributes for measuring nearby open-land context in residential comparisons.

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At a Glance

Difficulty
Intermediate — some data preparation helps
Size
Large · ≤20 GB
Formats
JSON, Geodatabase
Access
API or Download
API Key
Not Required
Provider
U.S. Geological Survey
Updates
Occasional
Last Verified
Sep 28, 2026
Source Type
Government Source
Data Terms
U.S. Geological Survey PAD-US data are public domain; cite the 4.1 release and retain access-status definitions.
  • Python Syntax Checked

From Source to Product Signal

Test a Product Idea in Four Steps

The official PAD-US 4.1 combined MapServer publishes ownership and public-access attributes. Start with one feature; a protected designation alone does not mean public access.

1

Check the Setup

  • Python 3.10 or newer
  • An internet connection
  • The requests Python package
2

Access the Data

  1. 1.Review the USGS PAD-US 4.1 release and public-access field definitions.
  2. 2.Query one feature from the combined MapServer layer.
  3. 3.Keep the access code separate from the protected-area category.
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3

Run the Python Example

Install the packages, then run the notebook cell.

python -m pip install requests

import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://edits.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services/PAD-US/PAD_US_gaz_combined/MapServer/0/query",
    params={"where": "1=1", "outFields": "OBJECTID,Unit_Nm,Pub_Access",
            "returnGeometry": "false", "resultRecordCount": 1, "f": "json"},
    timeout=25,
)
response.raise_for_status()
for feature in response.json()["features"]:
    print(feature["attributes"])
4

Test a Useful Signal

Inspect Protected-Area Access

Show one PAD-US unit and its published public-access code.

  1. 01Fetch one PAD-US 4.1 feature.
  2. 02Display its unit name and access code.
  3. 03Explain why unknown access cannot be counted as freely accessible land.

Related Datasets

Dataset Details

U.S. Geological Survey is a government source. Last verified 2026-09-28. Temporal coverage: PAD-US version 4.1, maintained as an official USGS release.

Data Types

Geospatial

Tasks

Mapping

Geography

United States

Provider

U.S. Geological Survey

Data Terms

U.S. Geological Survey PAD-US data are public domain; cite the 4.1 release and retain access-status definitions.

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