Metadata:
Identification_Information:
Citation:
Citation_Information:
Originator: Georgia Gap Project
Publication_Date: 19990122
Title: COVERAGE CONSERVATION -- Polygon coverage of public--Federal,
State and Local--and private conservation lands in Georgia.
Edition: Version 1.a, 19990121
Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: digital data
Series_Information:
Series_Name: n/a
Issue_Identification: n/a
Publication_Information:
Publication_Place: Athens, Georgia
Publisher: Georgia GIS Clearinghouse
Online_Linkage:
<URL:http://www.gis.state.ga.us>
Description:
Abstract:
This data layer is composed of ownership boundary polygons for lands managed for conservation in Georgia. There are at least three categories of conservation lands. Lands held under (1) fee-simple ownership include public lands, federal lands (National Forests,  National Wildlife Refuges, National Parks, military bases),
state lands (State Parks, State Wildlife Management Areas), county conservation parks; and private conservation lands (Nature Conservancy Preserves, lands owned by private foundations). A second category of conservation lands are lands protected under perpetual conservation easements or restrictive covenants. Conservation easements are held by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Natural Resources Conservation Service as well as numerous land trusts throughout the state. Only the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers holds perpetual restrictive covenants. (In order to get a permit to drain or fill a wetland, a developer frequently must do mitigation by protecting a wetland through a perpetual conservation easement of restrictive covenant.) A third category of conservation lands are those leased by the state--usually to create Wildlife Management Areas.

Purpose:
This layer was created as part of the Georgia Gap Analysis project at the Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia in order to facilitate conservation planning within the state. Georgia GAP is part of a federal initiative sponsored by the the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Geological Survey. Partners in this effort are the Wildlife Resources Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, and the Georgia Environmental Policy Institute.

Supplemental_Information:
This dataset was created from a number of disparate digital sources all created at 24000 or greater (finer) scale which were appended and edge-matched: Forest Service ownership boundaries (as well as wilderness and other sub-management areas from CISC) from the U.S.Forest Service; Chattahoochee National Recreation Area, Kennessaw National Battlefield Park, Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park and Andersonville National Historic Site boundaries are from the National Park Service; state lands and from the Wildlife Resources Division of theGeorgia Department of Natural Resources; boundaries for National Wildlife Refuges (except for Piedmont NWR and Okefenokee NWR) and military bases and National Wildlife Refuge boundaries from the state lands dataset produced by the University of Georgia's Information Technology Outreach Services for the Georgia Department of Transportation (to view metadata see the Georgia GIS Clearinghouse at http:/www.gis.state.ga.us/); Okefenokee NWR and wilderness boundaries are from the Okefenokee NWR; Piedmont NWR boundaries are from Warnell School of Forest Resources, U.G.A.; boundaries for Board of Regents lands are from University Architects at the University of Georgia. All other parcels, were digitized by Georgia GAP employees either from registered survey plats or legal descriptions using coordinate geometry or from "roughed in" boundaries drawn onto U.S.G.S. topographic maps. In all three cases, the resulting polygons were placed accurately over 12000 scale Digital Orthophoto Quarter Quads.
Time_Period_of_Content:
Time_Period_Information:
Single_Date/Time:
Calendar_Date: 19990122
Currentness_Reference: none
Status:
Progress: Invomplete
Maintenance_and_Update_Frequency: As needed
Spatial_Domain:
Bounding_Coordinates:
West_Bounding_Coordinate: -85.50688727
East_Bounding_Coordinate: -80.85222365
North_Bounding_Coordinate: 35.04472369
South_Bounding_Coordinate: 30.48106578
Keywords:
Theme:
Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: none
Theme_Keyword: conservation
Theme_Keyword: lands
Theme_Keyword: conservation lands
Theme_Keyword: easement
Theme_Keyword: conservation easement
Theme_Keyword: public lands
Theme_Keyword: state lands
Theme_Keyword: wilderness
Theme_Keyword: natural area
Theme_Keyword: nature preserve
Theme_Keyword: parks
Theme_Keyword: wildlife management area
Theme_Keyword: boundary
Theme_Keyword: gap project
Theme_Keyword: gap analysis
Theme_Keyword: protected lands
Theme_Keyword: scenic area
Theme_Keyword: recreation area
Place:
Place_Keyword_Thesaurus: none
Place_Keyword: Georgia
Place_Keyword: U.S.A.
Place_Keyword: North America
Access_Constraints: none
Use_Constraints: Anyone who uses these data must cite Georgia Gap Project.
Accuracy intended for 1:24000 scale.
Point_of_Contact:
Contact_Information:
Contact_Person_Primary:
Contact_Person: JP Schmidt
Contact_Organization: Georgia Gap Project
Contact_Position: Lands Database Manager
Contact_Address:
Address_Type: mailing and physical address
Address: Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia
City: Athens
State_or_Province: Georgia
Postal_Code: 30622-2202
Country: U.S.A.
Contact_Voice_Telephone: 706-542-3489
Contact_Facsimile_Telephone: 706-542-6040
Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: jpschmid@arches.uga.edu
Data_Set_Credit:
Fred Hay, Brandon Staub, Mark Higgins, Sheena Logothetti
helped digitize. Liz Kramer, Brian Toth and Karen Payne assisted in
numerous ways.
Native_Data_Set_Environment:
SunOS, 5.5.1, sun4m UNIX
ARC/INFO version 7.0.4
Cross_Reference:
Citation_Information:
Originator:
Publication_Date:
Title:
Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form:
Series_Information:
Series_Name:
Issue_Identification:
Publication_Information:
Publication_Place:
Publisher:
Online_Linkage:
Data_Quality_Information:
Attribute_Accuracy:
Attribute_Accuracy_Report:
Acreage values may be inaccurate for military bases, Chattahoochee
National Forest polygons and wildlife refuges (excluding Piedmont
and Okefenokee. Because acreage values were not provided for these 3
categories by the source, they were generated from the digitized
shapes. GAP-status values may be subject to revision.
Logical_Consistency_Report: Polygon topology present.
Completeness_Report:
Information is complete and up-to-date for federal and state lands as
well as conservation easements and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
mitigation lands greater than 10 acres. However, many gaps may exist
with respect to county conservation parks and easements and covenants
less than 10 acres. In addition, we were unable to get location
information on a number of sizable lands owned by the state Board of
Regents. We hope to fill these gaps as we continue to update this
coverage. Also, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers owns a number of large
lands bordering the resevoirs it maintains on the lower Chattahoochee.
These are lands of significant conservation value. Some of these lands
have been leased to the state for parks and wildlife management areas
and therefore appear in this database. The rest of the Lower
Chattahoochee C.O.E. lands are in the process of being digitized and
will be added to the database when they become available. Maintenance of
this database will require continual addition of new parcels as
government agencies acquire lands and conservation easements and
restrictive covenants are established on private lands.
Because they do not include natural areas, many historic sites which
are publically owned were not included in this database.
Positional_Accuracy:
Horizontal_Positional_Accuracy:
Horizontal_Positional_Accuracy_Report:
Lineage:
Source_Information:
Source_Citation: Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Citation_Information:
Originator:
Publication_Date: December 1998
Title: State Parks, Wildlife Resources Division Lands
Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form:
Series_Information:
Series_Name: none
Issue_Identification: none
Publication_Information:
Publication_Place: many
Publisher: many
Source_Scale_Denominator: 24000
Type_of_Source_Media:
Source_Time_Period_of_Content:
Time_Period_Information:
Single_Date/Time:
Calendar_Date:
Source_Currentness_Reference:
Source_Citation_Abbreviation:
Source_Contribution:
Process_Step:
Process_Description:
Parcels digitized by Georgia Gap for this dataset were created in
one of the following three ways:
1. Using Arc-Cogo to create shapes from bearings and
distances given on plats or in legal descriptions
2. Digitizing shapes directly on DOQQs in Arcview when
the source is a survey layed directly over an
aerial photo
3. Digitizing shapes from scanned in plats
In all three cases shapes are placed accurately on DOQQs using
Arcview.
Process_Date: 19990121
Process_Step:
Process_Description:
This dataset was created from a number of disparate digital
sources all created at 24000 or greater scale which were
appended and edge-matched using Arc/Info version 7.0.4
Process_Date: 19990121
Spatial_Data_Organization_Information:
Direct_Spatial_Reference_Method: Vector
Point_and_Vector_Object_Information:
SDTS_Terms_Description:
SDTS_Point_and_Vector_Object_Type: Point
Point_and_Vector_Object_Count: 1288
SDTS_Point_and_Vector_Object_Type: String
Point_and_Vector_Object_Count: 2778
SDTS_Point_and_Vector_Object_Type: GT-polygon composed of chains
Point_and_Vector_Object_Count: 1289
Spatial_Reference_Information:
Horizontal_Coordinate_System_Definition:
Planar:
Grid_Coordinate_System:
Grid_Coordinate_System_Name: Universal Transverse Mercator
Universal_Transverse_Mercator
UTM_Zone_Number: 17, 16
Transverse_Mercator
Scale_Factor_at_Central_Meridian: implied
Longitude_of_Central_Meridian: implied
Latitude_of_Projection_Origin: implied
False_Easting: implied
False_Northing: implied
Planar_Coordinate_Information:
Planar_Coordinate_Encoding_Method: coordinate pair
Coordinate_Representation:
Abscissa_Resolution: 0.0001
Ordinate_Resolution: 0.0001
Planar_Distance_Units: Meters
Geodetic_Model:
Horizontal_Datum_Name: North American Datum of 1983
Ellipsoid_Name: GRS1980
Semi-major_Axis: 6378206.4
Denominator_of_Flattening_Ratio: 294.98
Entity_and_Attribute_Information:
Overview_Description:
Entity_and_Attribute_Overview:
CONSERVATION.PAT:
COLUMN ITEM NAME WIDTH OUTPUT TYPE N.DEC ALTERNATE NAME
1 AREA 8 18 F 5
9 PERIMETER 8 18 F 5
17 CONSERVATION# 4 5 B -
21 CONSERVATION-ID 4 5 B -
25 MANAGING_AGENCY 50 50 C -
75 COUNTY_2 50 50 C -
Name of additional county if parcel spans counties.
125 COUNTY_3 50 50 C -
Name of third county if parcel spans threee counties.
175 COUNTY 50 50 C -
Name of county where parcel is located.
225 DESCRIPTION 50 50 C -
Description of parcel as National Forest,
State Park, Conservation Easement,
Restrictive Covenant, etc.
275 ACRES 16 16 N 5
Acreage--for the most parcels this is entered as a
datum, but where acreages were not provided by the
contributing agency, this value was generated from the area of
the digitized polygon.
291 EDUCATION 1 1 C -
Is the parcel used for public education?
292 SIGNIFICANT 1 1 C -
Does the parcel have special significance as habitat?
294 SCENIC_ENJ 1 1 C -
Does the parcel protect scenic resources?
295 AG_LAND 1 1 C -
Does the parcel contain agricultural land?
296 FOREST_LAND 1 1 C -
Does the parcel contain forest land?
297 OPEN_SPACE 1 1 C -
Is the parcel protected as part of a plan for open
space preservation?
298 PUB_RECREATION 1 1 C -
Is there provision for public recreation?
299 HISTORIC_A 1 1 C -
Does the parcel protect historic or archeaological resources?
300 OTHER_VALUE 50 50 C -
Additional values ...
350 GAP_STATUS 11 11 I -
1 = An area having permanent protection from conversion
of natural land cover and a mandated management plan in
operation to maintain a natural state within which disturbance
events (of natural type, frequency, intensity, and legacy)
are allowed to proceed without interference or are mimicked
through management.
2 = An area having permanent protection from conversion
of natural land cover and a mandated management plan in
operation to maintain a primarily natural state, but which may
receive uses or management practices that degrade the
quality of existing natural communities, including
suppression of natural disturbance.
3 = An area having permanent protection from conversion
of natural land cover for the majority of the area, but
subject to extractive uses of either a broad, low-intensity
type (e.g., logging) or localized intense type (e.g., mining).
It also confers protection to federally listed endangered
and threatened species throughout the area.
4 = There are no known public or private institutional
mandates or legally recognized easements or deed restrictions
held by the managing entity to prevent conversion of natural
habitat types to anthropogenic habitat types. The area generally
allows conversion to unnatural land cover throughout.
361 MANAGER_CODE 11 11 I -
A 4-digit code indicating land manager and management type,
e.g., 1412 = U.S. Forest Service + Wilderness Area.
372 OWNER_CODE 11 11 I -
A 4-digit code indicating owner, e.g., 1200 = U.S. Forest
Service, 7000 = private land.
383 PUBLIC_ACCESS 1 1 C -
Is the parcel open to public access.
384 COMMENTS 50 50 C -
For Restrictive Covenants and Conservation Easements held
by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers--this field records
the number of wetland acres impacted--for which the covenant
or easment is mitigation. Otherwise, this field
provides miscellaneous information about the parcel.
434 HABITAT 50 50 C -
General habitat types--where known.
484 SUB_UNIT 32 32 C -
Name for a specially managed sub-unit of a larger
"land_unit", e.g. "Cohutta Wilderness"
which exists within the "Chattahoochee National Forest".
516 NAME 64 64 C -
Name for parcel if a name exists--e.g., "Fort Mountain
State Park".
580 GA_GAPSTATUS 2 2 I
Level of protection in Georgia:
1. Land managed for biodiversity and has legislative
or legal protection;
2. Land managed for biodiversity but has no
legislative protection;
3. Land managed for game species and open space;
4. Land managed in part for biodiversity, but which include
extensive developed areas.
596 RECORD 16 16 I -
This attribute--a permit number--is used only for
Restrictive Covenants and Conservation Easements held
by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Entity_and_Attribute_Detail_Citation: none
Distribution_Information:
Distributor:
Contact_Information:
Contact_Organization_Primary:
Contact_Organization: Information Technology Outreach Services
Contact_Position: Georgia GIS Data Clearinghouse
Contact_Address:
Address_Type: mailing and physical address
Address: Chicopee Bldg, University of Georgia
City: Athens
State_or_Province: GA
Postal_Code: 30622-2202
Country: U.S.A.
Contact_Voice_Telephone: 706-542-5308
Contact_Instructions: none
Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: gischouse@state.ga.us
Distribution_Liability:
Creator does not assume any liability for errors or inaccuracies.
This dataset is not valid as a representation of legal boundaries.
Metadata_Reference_Information:
Metadata_Date: 19990121
Metadata_Review_Date: 19990121
Metadata_Future_Review_Date: as updated
Metadata_Contact:
Contact_Information:
Contact_Organization_Primary:
Contact_Organization: Georgia Gap Project
Contact_Person: JP Schmidt
Contact_Position: Lands Database Manager
Contact_Address:
Address_Type: mailing and physical address
Address: Institute of Ecology
City: Athens
State_or_Province: Georgia
Postal_Code: 30622-2202
Country: U.S.A.
Contact_Voice_Telephone: 706-542-3489
Contact_Facsimile_Telephone: 706-542-6040
Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: jpschmid@arches.uga.edu
Metadata_Standard_Name:
FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata
Metadata_Standard_Version: Version of June 8, 1994
Metadata_Access_Constraints: none
Metadata_Use_Constraints: none