Disclaimer

Appropriate and Inappropriate Use of GAP Data

Please read this section prior to downloading or ordering GAP data.

Draft State Products

The entire GAP process for a state requires 4-6 years. During that time, some draft products may become available although they may not be accuracy- or quality-assessed or completely documented. We make these products available as is and suggest their use only for research purposes. They are only available for FTP download. We have no information on the products in addition to that provided and can offer no technical assistance in their use.

Final Quality-assessed Products

After a state GAP project submits all products to the USGS GAP office, they are quality assessed, revised as needed, and edited for national standardization if necessary. Individual state products are also merged into multi-state regional products. Final products are published via the GAP home page for FTP download at no charge and made available as CD-ROM sets through a state-based distribution facility and GPO sales for a nominal charge (which varies by product and institution). Because an entire state data set may range in size from several hundred megabytes to a few gigabytes, the most efficient method for obtaining the complete set is by CD-ROM.

Is this the first time you will be downloading GAP Data or Final Reports?

Please take a moment to tell us about yourself by filling out this short form.

If you wish to download the data, go to the ftp site.

If you wish to order the CD-ROM set, go to the CD order information page.

Final Report

All completed projects contain a peer-reviewed final report that describes the methods, results, and limitations of each product as well as the results of the gap analyses, and graphic images of each GIS coverage. The intelligent use of any GAP data requires that you read the appropriate sections of the report.

Regional Products

GAP plans to regionalize all state data sets as groups of contiguous states are completed. Funding limitations have delayed this work as we focus on completion of state products, but some regional products are currently available. These are interim products, produced from some draft state products, and so may not be completely documented or may not have undergone a rigorous accuracy assessment. Also, there are no formal guidelines for regionalizing data to date. Because GAP methods have evolved rapidly over time, there are large differences among states in spatial and thematic resolution that make aesthetically perfect regionalizations impossible, but this is more an issue of resolution than accuracy. We make these products available as is and suggest their use only for research purposes. Our goal is to provide regionalized products for federal regions, Bailey's Provinces, and USFWS Ecosystems, as well nationwide coverages.

Search the NBII Clearinghouse Gateway

The following link will lead you to the GAP Analysis node on the NBII Clearinghouse Gateway (http://www.nbii.gov/search/clearinghouse).
Data and metadata are submitted to the National Gap Analysis Program by the individual State Gap Projects as they complete their mapping of land cover, vertebrate distributions, and stewardship.

We review the metadata for compliance with NBII's Biological Profile and the Federal Geographic Data Committee's Content Standards for the Digital Geospatial Metadata. After review, we will serve the data on our node. These metadata can be searched using text, field names, or spatial coordinates. To check for availability of state data on CD-ROMs or to download individual layers, check under "Final Quality-assessed Products" on this page.

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How to Obtain GAP Products

Appropriate and Inappropriate Use of GAP Data

Draft State Products

If you wish to search the national GAP holdings for these product go the state products page.