Established Protected and Conservation Areas in the NWT

The dataset is a compilation of the boundaries of the 19 NWT Electoral Districts based upon the 2012 Electoral Boundary Commission and the legal descriptions found in Bill 18 of Fifth Session, Seventeenth Legislative Assembly plus any Polling Divisions within each Electoral District as determined by Elections NWT.

Department of ENR/ITI Administrative Boundaries

A database of verified tornado tracks across Canada has been created covering the 30-year period from 1980 to 2009. The tornado data have undergone a number of quality control checks and represent the most current knowledge of past tornado events over the period. However, updates may be made to the database as new or more accurate information becomes available. The data have been converted to a geo-referenced mapping file that can be viewed and manipulated using GIS software.

Description: These commercial whale watching data are comprised of two datasets. First, the ‘whale_watching_trips_jun_sep_british_columbia’ data layer summarizes commercial whale watching trips that took place in 2019, 2020 and 2021 during the summer months (June to September). The second data layer, ‘wildlife_viewing_events_jun_sep_british_columbia’ contains estimated wildlife viewing events carried out by commercial whale watching vessels for the same years (2019, 2020 and 2021) and months (June to September). Commercial whale watching trips and wildlife viewing events are summarized using the same grid, and they can be related using the unique cell identifier field ‘cell_id’. The bulk of this work was carried out at University of Victoria and was funded by the Marine Environmental Observation, Prediction and Response (MEOPAR) Network under the ‘Whale watching AIS Vessel movement Evaluation’ or WAVE project (2018 – 2022). The aim of the WAVE project was to increase the understanding of whale watching activities in Canada’s Pacific region using vessel traffic data derived from AIS (Automatic Identification System). The work was finalized by DFO Science in the Pacific Region. These spatial data products of commercial whale watching operations can be used to inform Marine Spatial Planning, conservation planning activities, and threat assessments involving vessel activities in British Columbia. Methods: A list of commercial whale watching vessels based in British Columbia and Washington State and their corresponding MMSIs (Maritime Mobile Service Identity) was compiled from the whale watching companies and Marine Traffic (www.marinetraffic.com). This list was used to query cleaned CCG AIS data to extract AIS positions corresponding to commercial whale watching vessels. A commercial whale watching trip was defined as a set of consecutive AIS points belonging to the same vessel departing and ending in one of the previously identified whale watching home ports. A classification model (unsupervised Hidden Markov Model) using vessel speed as the main variable was developed to classify AIS vessel positions into wildlife-viewing and non wildlife viewing events. Commercial whale watching trips in the south and north-east of Vancouver Island were limited to a duration of minimum 1 hour and maximum 3.5 hours. For trips in the west coast of Vancouver island the maximum duration was set to 6 hours. Wildlife-viewing events duration was set to minimum of 10 minutes to a maximum of 1 hour duration. For more information on methodology, consult metadata pdf available with the Open Data record. References: Nesdoly, A. 2021. Modelling marine vessels engaged in wildlife-viewing behaviour using Automatic Identification Systems (AIS). Available from: https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/handle/1828/13300. Data Sources: Oceans Network Canada (ONC) provided encoded AIS data for years 2019, 2020 and 2021, within a bounding box including Vancouver Island and Puget Sound used to generate these products. This AIS data was in turn provided by the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) via a licensing agreement between the CCG and ONC for the non-commercial use of CCG AIS Data. More information here: https://www.oceannetworks.ca/science/community-based-monitoring/marine-domain-awareness-program/ Molly Fraser provided marine mammal sightings data collected on board a whale watching vessels to develop wildlife-viewing events classification models. More information about this dataset here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X20306709?via%3Dihub Uncertainties: The main source of uncertainty is with the conversion of AIS point locations into track segments, specifically when the distance between positions is large (e.g., greater than 1000 meters).

The Thaidene Nëné (thy-Den-ay nen-ay) area is a celebrated cultural landscape with rich wildlife populations and unique geography located at the eastern end of Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories. The initial Thaidene Nëné study area was approximately 33,690 km2. Thaidene Nëné means ‘Land of the Ancestors’ in the Dënesųłı̨né language.

Important Wildlife Areas In The NWT

This dataset displays the geographic areas within which critical habitat (CH) for terrestrial species at risk, listed on Schedule 1 of the federal Species at Risk Act (SARA), occurs in Canada. Note that this includes only terrestrial species and species for which Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and Parks Canada Agency (PCA) lead. Under SARA, critical habitat is “the habitat that is necessary for the survival or recovery of a listed wildlife species and that is identified as the species’ critical habitat in the recovery strategy or action plan for the species.” To precisely define what constitutes critical habitat for a particular species it is essential that this geospatial information be considered in conjunction with complementary information provided in a species’ recovery document. Recovery documents are available from the Species at Risk (SAR) Public Registry (https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/species-risk-public-registry.html) for two posting stages (proposed and final posting). The recovery documents contain important information about the interpretation of the geospatial information, especially regarding the biological and environmental features (“biophysical attributes”) that complete the definition of a species’ critical habitat. Within any defined critical habitat geospatial boundary, not all of the area is necessarily critical habitat. It is important to note that recovery planning documents (and, therefore, critical habitat) may be amended from time to time as new information becomes available, which may occur after a document has been posted as proposed or final on the SAR Public Registry. The SAR Public Registry should always be considered as the main source for critical habitat information. In cases where the data are sensitive, the geographic area within which critical habitat occurs may be represented as grids. These are coarse grids (1, 10, 50 or 100 square kilometres) that serve as indicators to locate critical habitat in the recovery planning document. More detailed information on critical habitat may be made available on a need-to-know basis by contacting Environment and Climate Change Canada – Canadian Wildlife Service at ec.planificationduretablissement-recoveryplanning.ec@canada.ca. The data is current as of the date of the most recent revision.

Proposed Protected and Conservation Areas in the NWT

The Canadian Protected and Conserved Areas Database (CPCAD) is the authoritative source of data on protected and conserved areas in Canada. The database consists of the most up-to-date spatial and attribute data on marine and terrestrial protected areas in all governance categories recognized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), as well as Other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs, or conserved areas) across the country. Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) are also included if they are recognized as protected or conserved areas. CPCAD adheres to national reporting standards and is freely available to the public. CPCAD is compiled and managed by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), in collaboration with federal, provincial, territorial, and other reporting authorities that provide the data. The database contains combined data from all these Canadian reporting authorities, who have determined that their areas meet the Canadian criteria as protected or conserved areas. CPCAD is used by a wide range of organizations, including governments, environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs), academia, land managers, industry, and the general public. CPCAD supports many of the Government of Canada’s priorities including Canada’s national reporting on protected areas, Canada’s international reporting on protected areas as a result of Canada’s commitments under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, and Canada’s protected areas program by providing baseline information. More detailed information on CPCAD is available by downloading the User Manual. The data is current as of the date of the most recent revision. For prior years, please reach out to scf-geocarto-cws-geomapping@ec.gc.ca.