# NOAA Marine Protected Areas Inventory

The NOAA MPA Center's Marine Protected Areas Inventory (v2024, layer NOAA_MPA_Inventory_2023): 981 boundaries of existing marine protected areas under U.S. federal, state, territorial, local and tribal jurisdiction that meet the IUCN definition of a protected area. All 35 native attributes are kept as columns. Two of them are the crosswalk keys to other registries: `ProSeasID` (ProtectedSeas Navigator `site_id`) and `WDPA_Cd` (World Database on Protected Areas id). Fishery management areas and similar are not in the Inventory. Not to be used for navigation; not a legal document (consult the CFR or state code for regulatory boundaries).

- **Collection**: `mpa_inventory` v1.0.2, 981 features, GeoParquet 1.1 (`places.parquet`) and PMTiles (`places.pmtiles`, layer `mpa_inventory`)
- **Licence**: CC-PDDC - U.S. federal government work (NOAA MPA Center). InPort item 69506: "These data are in the Public domain. The data are not to be used for navigation." The ArcGIS item licenseInfo adds: "Data are not to be used for navigation. ... These data and related graphics are not legal documents and are not intended to be used as such." https://www.usa.gov/publicdomain/label/1.0/
- **Attribution**: NOAA National Ocean Service, Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, Marine Protected Areas Center, NOAA Marine Protected Areas Inventory (2024 release). Public domain; not to be used for navigation. Processed by Ocean Metrics.
- **Refresh**: monthly, by `.github/workflows/sync.yml` (re-fetched only when the source's `editingInfo.dataLastEditDate` or record count changed)

## Sources and provenance

| Component | Source | Item | Data last edit | Retrieved | Records | Checksum (sha-256 of payload) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | https://services2.arcgis.com/C8EMgrsFcRFL6LrL/arcgis/rest/services/NOAA_MPA_Inventory_2023/FeatureServer/0 | eb2b36aecb004f14ac29cf0260624291 | 2025-01-15T18:28:55Z | 2026-10-16T07:53:17Z | 981 | `4c751f3066a60bef...` |

Machine-readable copy: [`provenance.json`](./provenance.json) (also in `collection.json` and the Parquet footer).

## Schema

| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| place_id | string | prefixed, unique id: MPAINV:<Site_ID> (e.g. MPAINV:CA123) |
| authority | string | MPAINV = NOAA Marine Protected Areas Inventory |
| source_id | string | the Inventory's Site_ID (stable site code; the place_id suffix) |
| name | string | human-readable name |
| place_type | string | mpa |
| geom_type | string | geometry type (MultiPolygon) |
| status | string | active: the site is listed in the current Inventory release |
| status_source | string | URL that documents the status |
| status_date | string | ISO date (or year) the status took effect or was last confirmed; may be empty |
| status_upstream | string | the source's own status code, verbatim (e.g. BOEM LEASE_STATUS_CD, AREA_STATUS); null when the source has none. may disagree with `status` |
| status_history | string | JSON array of dated status events [{date, value, source, note}], ascending; null when none is logged |
| source_url | string | the service endpoint or download the boundary was fetched from |
| source_date | date32[day] | date of the source's last data edit (retrieval date when the source serves none) |
| retrieved | timestamp[ms, tz=UTC] | UTC time the boundary was fetched |
| version | string | collection release version this row was built for |
| license | string | SPDX identifier of the licence (CC-PDDC = public-domain U.S. government work) |
| attribution | string | credit line to show with the data |
| FID | int64 | native attribute of the source layer (FID) |
| Site_ID | string | Inventory site code, unique; the id part of place_id |
| Site_Name | string | native attribute of the source layer (Site_Name) |
| Gov_Level | string | native attribute of the source layer (Gov_Level) |
| State | string | native attribute of the source layer (State) |
| Prot_Lvl | string | native attribute of the source layer (Prot_Lvl) |
| Mgmt_Agen | string | native attribute of the source layer (Mgmt_Agen) |
| Mgmt_Plan | string | native attribute of the source layer (Mgmt_Plan) |
| Pri_Con_Fo | string | native attribute of the source layer (Pri_Con_Fo) |
| Cons_Focus | string | native attribute of the source layer (Cons_Focus) |
| Fish_Rstr | string | native attribute of the source layer (Fish_Rstr) |
| Prot_Focus | string | native attribute of the source layer (Prot_Focus) |
| Permanence | string | native attribute of the source layer (Permanence) |
| Constancy | string | native attribute of the source layer (Constancy) |
| Estab_Yr | int64 | native attribute of the source layer (Estab_Yr) |
| Anchor | string | native attribute of the source layer (Anchor) |
| Vessel | string | native attribute of the source layer (Vessel) |
| IUCN_MPA | int64 | native attribute of the source layer (IUCN_MPA) |
| IUCNcat | string | native attribute of the source layer (IUCNcat) |
| Category | string | native attribute of the source layer (Category) |
| Marine | string | native attribute of the source layer (Marine) |
| URL | string | the site's own web page, as listed in the Inventory |
| WDPA_Cd | int64 | World Database on Protected Areas site code (crosswalk key to the WDPA id); may be empty |
| ProSeasID | string | ProtectedSeas Navigator site id (crosswalk key to the Navigator `site_id`); may be empty |
| Design | string | native attribute of the source layer (Design) |
| AreaKm | double | native attribute of the source layer (AreaKm) |
| AreaMar | double | native attribute of the source layer (AreaMar) |
| MarPercent | int64 | native attribute of the source layer (MarPercent) |
| AreaNT | double | native attribute of the source layer (AreaNT) |
| Longitude | double | native attribute of the source layer (Longitude) |
| Latitude | double | native attribute of the source layer (Latitude) |
| VxCount | int64 | native attribute of the source layer (VxCount) |
| SHAPE_Leng | double | native attribute of the source layer (SHAPE_Leng) |
| Shape__Area | double | native attribute of the source layer (Shape__Area) |
| Shape__Length | double | native attribute of the source layer (Shape__Length) |
| bbox | struct<xmin: double, ymin: double, xmax: double, ymax: double> | GeoParquet bbox-covering column (xmin, ymin, xmax, ymax) |
| geometry | binary | MULTIPOLYGON, EPSG:4326, split at +/-180 antimeridian |

Native attributes keep the source layer's names; a native name equal to a gazetteer column ignoring case
(`NAME` vs `name`) is suffixed `_src`.

## Files

| File | Size | Checksum |
|---|---|---|
| places | 70.8 MB | `1220d4b25003234d...` |
| places-tiles | 24.8 MB | `1220160a717509c6...` |
| styles/default | 1 kB | `1220720ef48d6575...` |
| provenance | 2 kB | `1220e971891c0dc0...` |
| documentation | 0 kB | `1220e3b0c44298fc...` |

## Quick start

```sql
SELECT place_id, name, status, status_date
FROM read_parquet('https://storage.oceanmetrics.io/gazetteer/mpa_inventory/places.parquet')
ORDER BY place_id;
```

## Changes

- **1.0.2**: first release.