Description: This dataset is a compilation of georeferenced museum records of various mussel species occurring in the state of Texas. Each point feature represents one museum record, geographically placed according to the location description given in the museum record. Location descriptions included in the records ranged from precise GPS coordinates to very general locations (e.g., county or river basin). Points were placed as accurately as possible, and then assigned an accuracy rank, ranging from 1 (most accurate) to 10 (least accurate). The accuracy scale used is as follows: 1-GPS coordinates 2-Road/river intersection 3-x direction, x miles from x city or intersection 4-on x river within x city; on x river within x park 5-on x river within large city (i.e., Austin, Dallas, Houston, etc.); park 6-lake; city 7-creek or river within a county 8-county 9-creek or river 10-river basin When a park, city, lake, county, creek or river, or river basin was the only location description provided, a point was placed within the bounds of that named feature. Accuracy ranks were adjusted for records from the general scale as needed. Notes were made in the "AccNotes" field if the exact location description could not be used as stated.Includes information gathered in this report: http://irnr.tamu.edu/media/297520/status_of_freshwater_mussels_in_texas_tamu-irnr_05-2010_1.pdf
Copyright Text: Provided to SARA by Amy Snelgrove, GISP Texas A&M University, July 2010.
Land Information Systems
Texas A&M Institute of Renewable Natural Resources
1500 Research Parkway, Suite 110
2260 TAMU
College Station, Texas 77843-2260
W: 979-845-4476 F: 979-845-0662 C: 979-229-5013
Description: The USGS Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US) is the nation's inventory of protected areas, including public open space and voluntarily provided, private protected areas, identified as an A-16 National Geospatial Data Asset in the Cadastral Theme (http://www.fgdc.gov/ngda-reports/NGDA_Datasets.html). PAD-US is an ongoing project with several published versions of a spatial database of areas dedicated to the preservation of biological diversity, and other natural, recreational or cultural uses, managed for these purposes through legal or other effective means. The geodatabase maps and describes public open space and other protected areas. Most areas are public lands owned in fee; however, long-term easements, leases, and agreements or administrative designations documented in agency management plans may be included. The PAD-US database strives to be a complete “best available” inventory of protected areas (lands and waters) including data provided by managing agencies and organizations. The dataset is built in collaboration with several partners and data providers (http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/stewards/). See Supplemental Information Section of this metadata record for more information on partnerships and links to major partner organizations. As this dataset is a compilation of many data sets; data completeness, accuracy, and scale may vary. Federal and state data are generally complete, while local government and private protected area coverage is about 50% complete, and depends on data management capacity in the state. For completeness estimates by state: http://www.protectedlands.net/partners. As the federal and state data are reasonably complete; focus is shifting to completing the inventory of local gov and voluntarily provided, private protected areas. The PAD-US geodatabase contains over twenty-five attributes and four feature classes to support data management, queries, web mapping services and analyses: Marine Protected Areas (MPA), Fee, Easements and Combined. The data contained in the MPA Feature class are provided directly by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Marine Protected Areas Center (MPA, http://marineprotectedareas.noaa.gov ) tracking the National Marine Protected Areas System. The Easements feature class contains data provided directly from the National Conservation Easement Database (NCED, http://conservationeasement.us ) The MPA and Easement feature classes contain some attributes unique to the sole source databases tracking them (e.g. Easement Holder Name from NCED, Protection Level from NOAA MPA Inventory). The "Combined" feature class integrates all fee, easement and MPA features as the best available national inventory of protected areas in the standard PAD-US framework. In addition to geographic boundaries, PAD-US describes the protection mechanism category (e.g. fee, easement, designation, other), owner and managing agency, designation type, unit name, area, public access and state name in a suite of standardized fields. An informative set of references (i.e. Aggregator Source, GIS Source, GIS Source Date) and "local" or source data fields provide a transparent link between standardized PAD-US fields and information from authoritative data sources. The areas in PAD-US are also assigned conservation measures that assess management intent to permanently protect biological diversity: the nationally relevant "GAP Status Code" and global "IUCN Category" standard. A wealth of attributes facilitates a wide variety of data analyses and creates a context for data to be used at local, regional, state, national and international scales. More information about specific updates and changes to this PAD-US version can be found in the Data Quality Information section of this metadata record as well as on the PAD-US website, http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/data/history/.) Due to the completeness and complexity of these data, it is highly recommended to review the Supplemental Information Section of the metadata record as well as the Data Use Constraints, to better understand data partnerships as well as see tips and ideas of appropriate uses of the data and how to parse out the data that you are looking for. For more information regarding the PAD-US dataset please visit, http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/. To find more data resources as well as view example analysis performed using PAD-US data visit, http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/resources/. The PAD-US dataset and data standard are compiled and maintained by the USGS Gap Analysis Program, http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/ . For more information about data standards and how the data are aggregated please review the “Standards and Methods Manual for PAD-US,” http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/data/standards/ .
Copyright Text: US Geological Survey, Gap Analysis Program (GAP). May 2016. Protected Areas Database of the United States (PADUS), version 1.4 Combined Feature Class
Downloaded 10 August 2016. http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/data/download/
Description: Data published by USGS in 2005.Abstract:This open-file report presents the results of the USGS Mineral Resources Program activity to compile a national-scale geologic map database to support national and regional level projects, including mineral resource and geo- environmental assessments. The only comprehensive sources of regional- and national-scale geologic maps are state geologic maps with scales ranging from 1:100,000 to 1:1,000,000. Digital versions of these state maps form the core of what is presented here. Because no adequate geologic map exists for the state of Alaska, it is being compiled in regional blocks that also form part of this national database. It is expected that this series will completed by approximately the end of 2007. These maps and databases are being released in blocks of states or, in the case of Alaska, as compiled blocks of 1:250,000-scale quadrangles as chapters in this series. For Alaska, formal maps as well as databases are being published here, whereas for the conterminous U.S. only state databases and preview graphics are presented, because published maps for most states already exist. For Alaska these regional compilations will form the base for compiling a new geologic map of the state. As documented in Chapter A, standards for the conterminous U.S. are somewhat different than those for Alaska and Hawaii.Supplemental_Information:This database consists of five major Arc/Info GIS datasets for each state; - one: geologic map with formations, - two: faults (where present), - three: dikes (where present), - four: miscellaneous line features (where present), - five: miscellaneous point features (where present).http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2005/1351/
Copyright Text: USGS http://mrdata.usgs.gov/geology/state/state.php?state=TX
Downloaded 29 August 2016.
Description: This dataset was set up as a system to identify broad natural regions of Texas, to serve as a common point of reference for scientists, students, visitors and all citizens of Texas; and to locate and recommend for preservation natural areas that contain unique, significant, unusual and scenic resources, including rare or endangered species and endangered geological formations and ecosystems, with the goal of preserving elements of Texas natural diversity (LBJ School of Public Affairs, 1978 p17). Downloaded from TNRIS website 6 September 2016. https://tnris.org/data-catalog/
Description: Ecoregions denote areas of general similarity in ecosystems and in the type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. They are designed to serve as a spatial framework for the research, assessment, management, and monitoring of ecosystems and ecosystem components. These general purpose regions are critical for structuring and implementing ecosystem management strategies across federal agencies, state agencies, and nongovernment organizations that are responsible for different types of resources within the same geographical areas. The approach used to compile this map is based on the premise that ecological regions can be identified through the analysis of patterns of biotic and abiotic phenomena, including geology, physiography, vegetation, climate, soils, land use, wildlife, and hydrology. The relative importance of each characteristic varies from one ecological region to another. A Roman numeral hierarchical scheme has been adopted for different levels for ecological regions. Level I is the coarsest level, dividing North America into 15 ecological regions. Level II divides the continent into 52 regions (Commission for Environmental Cooperation Working Group, 1997). At Level III, the continental United States contains 104 regions whereas the conterminous United States has 84 (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2005). Level IV ecoregions are further subdivisions of Level III ecoregions. Methods used to define the ecoregions are explained in Omernik (1995, 2004), Omernik and others (2000), and Gallant and others (1989). Literature cited: Commission for Environmental Cooperation Working Group, 1997, Ecological regions of North America- toward a common perspective: Montreal, Commission for Environmental Cooperation, 71 p. Gallant, A. L., Whittier, T.R., Larsen, D.P., Omernik, J.M., and Hughes, R.M., 1989, Regionalization as a tool for managing environmental resources: Corvallis, Oregon, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA/600/3-89/060, 152p. Omernik, J.M., 1995, Ecoregions - a framework for environmental management, in Davis, W.S. and Simon, T.P., eds., Biological assessment and criteria-tools for water resource planning and decision making: Boca Raton, Florida, Lewis Publishers, p.49-62. Omernik, J.M., Chapman, S.S., Lillie, R.A., and Dumke, R.T., 2000, Ecoregions of Wisconsin: Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters, v. 88, p. 77-103. Omernik, J.M., 2004, Perspectives on the nature and definitions of ecological regions: Environmental Management, v. 34, Supplement 1, p. s27-s38. Comments and questions regarding the Level III and IV Ecoregions should be addressed to Glenn Griffith, Dynamac Corporation, c/o US EPA., 200 SW 35th Street, Corvallis, OR 97333, (541)-754-4465, email:griffith.glenn@epa.gov Alternate: James Omernik, USGS, c/o US EPA, 200 SW 35th Street, Corvallis, OR 97333, (541)-754-4458, email:omernik.james@epa.gov
Copyright Text: Downloaded from Texas Parks & Wildlife (TPWD) GIS data download webpage on 4 August 2016. http://tpwd.texas.gov/gis/data/
Description: Gould Ecological Regions - created from map in Gould, F. W. 1975 Texas Plants - A Checklist and Ecological Summary. Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, Publication 585. These Ecological regions are used by the TPWD Wildlife Division. This is a rough copy of the ecological regions in the report listed above. Created by TPWD GIS Lab.Downloaded from TNRIS website 6 September 2016. https://tnris.org/data-catalog/
Copyright Text: Geometry: created from map in Gould, F. W. 1975, updated by TPWD GIS Lab 1/09/2004 Attributes: Updated by TPWD GIS lab 04/15/2010
Description: The original file was clipped to the state of Texas. This map layer is commonly called Bailey's ecoregions and shows ecosystems of regional extent in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Four levels of detail are included to show a hierarchy of ecosystems. The largest ecosystems are domains, which are groups of related climates and which are differentiated based on precipitation and temperature. Divisions represent the climates within domains and are differentiated based on precipitation levels and patterns as well as temperature. Divisions are subdivided into provinces, which are differentiated based on vegetation or other natural land covers. The finest level of detail is described by subregions, called sections, which are subdivisions of provinces based on terrain features. Also identified are mountainous areas that exhibit different ecological zones based on elevation.Downloaded from TNRIS website 6 September 2016. https://tnris.org/data-catalog/
Copyright Text: USDA Forest Service and (or) National Atlas of the United States of America