In the 2012 President's Budget Request, the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) is terminated. As a result, all resources, databases, tools, and applications within this web site will be removed on January 15, 2012. For more information, please refer to the NBII Program Termination page.
Ken Boykin
New Mexico State University
Box 30003, MSC 4901
Las Cruces, NM 88003
Phone: (575) 646-6303
E-mail: kboykin@nmsu.edu
Aquatic GAP Andrea Ostroff
Aquatic Gap Program Manager
12201 Sunrise Valley Drive
MS 302
Reston, VA 20192
aostroff@usgs.gov Tel (703) 648-4070
Fax (703) 648-4224
Featured Resource
[Image: NBII LIFE]
The NBII Library of Images from the Environment is a growing collection of over 11,000 images of diverse, well-documented images of nature and the environment. The collection now features land cover images from the Southwest Regional Gap Analysis Project.
Keeping Common Species Common
About the GAP Analysis Program
[Copyright: USGS GAP Analysis Program]
The GAP Analysis Program (GAP) is a component of the
National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII).The goal of the GAP Analysis Program is to keep common species common by identifying those species and plant communities that are not adequately represented in existing conservation lands. Common species are those not currently threatened with extinction. By identifying their habitats, GAP Analysis gives land managers and policy makers the information they need to make better-informed decisions when identifying priority areas for conservation. Visit the GAP Analysis Program page for more information about GAP.
What is a GAP analysis project?
"GAP analysis" refers to the process of combining a land stewardship dataset, a land cover dataset, and animal distribution models to identify and represent the protection of biodiversity elements at a specified project scale. GAP projects are cooperative efforts among regional, state, tribal and federal agencies, academic and non-governmental institutions, and other private groups as well as the divisions of the U.S. Geological Survey. Completed GAP projects and their products (such as reports and high quality datasets and maps) have many conservation and management applications.
GAP in the US
GAP data represents the synthesis of geospatial data from many different sources. The synthesized data can be divided into three main categories (land stewardship, land cover, and animal habitats), and is available in many different formats for a variety of users. Click here or scroll below to directly explore the new interactive map viewers for the US, including the GAP National Landcover Viewer, the Protected Areas Viewer, and the GAP Online Analysis Tool.
Click on the tabs above to explore our map viewers.
Land cover viewer:
The Gap Analysis Program (GAP) national land cover viewer displays data on the vegetation and land use patterns of the continental United States. It combines land cover data generated for the Southwest Regional Gap Analysis project completed in 2004, the Southeast Regional Gap Analysis Project completed in 2007, the Northwest Regional Gap project, and the updated California Gap project completed in 2009. For areas of the country without an Ecological System level Gap project, data created by the Landfire Project was used. All these projects use consistent base satellite imagery, the same classification systems and similar mapping methodology allowing for the creation of a seamless national land cover map.
Protected Areas of the United States viewer:
The Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US) is a national database of federal and state conservation lands. It contains the most current information about publicly held conservation lands (with conservation measures available) in the U.S. It was first published for delivery to the UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Center's (WCMC) World Database for Protected Areas (WDPA) in April 2009 by USGS GAP, on behalf of the PAD-US Partnership.
GAP Online Analysis Tool:
This open-source mapping application allows users to explore and interact with GAP datasets by providing: the ability to selecte an area of interest; the ability to select a single or set of species; access to quantitative tools to summarize land cover, predicted habitat or protection status; and the ability to generate reports.
How is GAP Analysis Conducted?
"Gap Analysis" provides a scientific method for identifying the representation of native species in our present-day network of conservation lands. Four major steps are completed in the GAP Analysis process:
1. Land Cover Dataset: Map land cover of the dominant plant species.
2. Animal Habitat Models: Map predicted distributions of vertebrate species.
3. Land Stewardship Dataset: Delineate land stewardship at one of four levels.
4. Identify the "gaps!": Analyze the representation of vertebrate species and vegetation alliances in conservation lands.