NPS
This page contains links to spatial and tabular data, data tools such as APIs, and information on data standards. Data sets developed by NPS are also shared through data.gov, the federal government's open data site.
Geospatial Data
Below are frequently requested geospatial data sets. You can also find geospatial data in the IRMA Data Store. Using the advanced search option allows you to enter specific criteria to narrow your search results.
- National Park Service unit boundaries - data to use for display and general GIS analysis (not intended for engineering or legal purposes). Updated regularly.
- NPS GIS, cartography, and mapping - a starting point for NPS geospatial resources; links to national GIS programs.
- NPS ArcGIS Online - featured spatial content, maps, and applications.
- Vegetation maps - geospatial and tabular data products resulting from standardized vegetation inventories in over 270 parks.
- Geology maps - geospatial and tabular data products. May include bedrock, surficial, and special-purpose maps such as geomorphological or geologic hazard maps. See associated data model.
- NPS Geodiversity Atlas - data on the range of geology, cave/karst, and soil resources in parks.
- Landscape Dynamics Map Viewer - measured indicators include population density, road density, areas without roads, impervious surfaces, and more. About Landscape Dynamics.
- NPMap - a suite of web map tools available to NPS staff and partners; includes a suite of base maps and links to the NPS symbol library.
Other Data Sets - Tabular and Spatial
- Air Quality and Ozone data - data from park or park-sponsored monitoring locations. Access to exceedance information, live and historic data, data downloads. Also available are data on air quality conditions and trends, including ozone, particulate matter, visibility, nitrogen, and sulfur.
- Hydrographic and Impairment Statistics - summary statistics of surface hydrography and information on water impairments.
- Water quality and quantity data - from NPS monitoring locations.
- Water Quality Portal - managed by the National Water Quality Monitoring Council. Includes NPS water quality data from lab samples (loaded from STORET). See examples of applications using the Water Quality Portal
- Photogrammetry - photogrammetric capture, analysis, and 3D printing of geologic and paleontological resources.
- Natural resource inventory and monitoring data - navigate to any of the 32 networks across the country to view reports and data sets on inventories and long-term monitoring of selected natural resources.
- Visitor spending effects - the economic contributions of national parks at a national, state, and park level
- NPGallery - photographs and digital media related to national parks.
REST Services and APIs
- GIS data services directory - REST endpoint for public ArcGIS Server web services.
- IRMA Services - data sets for applications hosted on the IRMA portal, including park units, taxonomy, NPSpecies, park statistics, Data Store, landscape dynamics, and hydrographic impairment.
- Water Quality Portal web services - includes discrete (lab sample) NPS water quality data.
- NPS APIs - authoritative NPS content about parks and facilities, events, news, alerts, and more.
Data Standards
- NPS Core Spatial Data Standard - includes a data model and implementation document
- NPS Road Spatial Data Standard - NPS road infrastructure data model and implementation document
- NPS Trail Spatial Data Standard - trails centerline data model and implementation document
- NPS Building Spatial Data Standard - building point and polygon data model and implementation plan
- NPS cultural resources - spatial data transfer standards - address the spatial representation of cultural resources, accuracy of data and feature level metadata
- Heritage documentation standards - standards and guidelines for architectural and engineering documentation
- Natural Resource Inventory and Monitoring standards
- Core database standards - guidance for designing and developing databases for storing and managing natural resource inventory and monitoring data.
- Minimum database implementation standards - baseline standards for databases designed by Inventory and Monitoring networks.
Last updated: January 25, 2021