The “Soils of Canada, Derived” national scale thematic datasets display the distribution and areal extent of soil attributes such as drainage, texture of parent material, kind of material, and classification of soils in terms of provincial Detailed Soil Surveys (DDS) polygons, Soil Landscape Polygons (SLCs), Soil Order and Great Group. The relief and associated slopes of the Canadian landscape are depicted on the local surface form thematic dataset. The purpose of the “Soils of Canada, Derived” series is to facilitate the cartographic display and basic queries of the Soil Landscapes of Canada at a national scale. For more detailed or sophisticated analysis, users should investigate the full “Soil Landscapes of Canada” product.

Data include a collection of annual land cover maps derived from MODIS 250 m spatial resolution remotely sensed imagery for the period 2000 to 2011. Processing of the time series was designed to reduce the occurrence of false change between maps. The method was based on change updating as described in Pouliot et al. (2011, 2013). Change detection accounted for both abrupt changes such as forest harvesting and more gradual changes such as recurrent insect defoliation. To determine the new label for a pixel identified as change, an evidential reasoning approach was used to combine spectral and contextual information. The 2005 MODIS land cover of Canada at 250 m spatial resolution described in Latifovic et al. (2012) was used as the base map. It contains 39 land cover classes, which for time series development was considered too detailed and was reduced to 25 and 19 class versions. The 19 class version corresponds to the North America Land Change Monitoring System (NALCMS) Level 2 legend as described in Latifovic et al. (2012). Accuracy assessment of time series is difficult due to the need to assess many maps. For areas of change in the time series accuracy was found to be 70% based on the 19 class thematic legend. This time series captures the spatial distribution of dominant land cover transitions. It is intended for use in modeling, development of remote sensing products such as leaf area index or land cover based albedo retrievals, and other exploratory analysis. It is not appropriate for use in any rigorous reporting or inventory assessments due to the accuracy of the land cover classification and uncertainty as to the capture of all relevant changes for an application. NOTE: To see this entire product in the map viewer, use a base map in the "World" section (EPSG: 3857).

This land cover data set was derived from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) sensor operating on board the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites. Information on the NOAA series of satellites can be found at www.noaa.gov/satellites.html The vegetation and land cover information set has been classified into twelve categories. Information on the classification of the vegetation and land cover, raster to vector conversion, generalization for cartographic presentations is included in the paper "The Canada Vegetation and Land Cover: A Raster and Vector Data Set for GIS Applications - Uses in Agriculture" (https://geogratis.cgdi.gc.ca/download/landcover/scale/gis95ppr.pdf). A soil quality evaluation was obtained by cross-referencing the AVHRR information with Census of Agriculture records and biophysical (Soil Landscapes of Canada) data and is also included in the above paper. AVHRR Land Cover Data approximates a 1:2M scale and was done originally for Agriculture Canada. The projection used is Lambert Conformal Conic (LCC) 49/77 with origin at 49N 95W.

McElhanney Consulting Services Ltd (MCSL) has performed a LiDAR and Imagery survey in southern Saskatchewan. The acquisition was completed between the 16th and 25th of October, 2009. The survey consisted of approximately 790 square kilometers of coverage. While collecting the LiDAR data, we also acquired aerial photo in RGB and NIR modes consisting of 1649 frames each.

The Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation (CCMEO) has created a 30m resolution radar mosaic of Canada's landmass from the RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM). This product highlights different types of radar interaction with the surface, which can assist the interpretation and study of land cover on a national scale. The national mosaic is made up of 3222 RCM images acquired between August 2023 and February 2024. (Credit: RADARSAT Constellation Mission imagery © Government of Canada [2024]. RADARSAT is an official mark of the CSA.)

The AAFC Infrastructure Flood Mapping in Saskatchewan 20 centimeter colour orthophotos is a collection of georeferenced color digital orthophotos with 20 cm pixel size. The imagery was delivered in GeoTIF and ECW formats. The TIF and ECW mosaics were delivered in the same 1 km x 1 km tiles as the LiDAR data, and complete mosaics for each area in MrSID format were also provided. The digital photos were orthorectified using the ground model created from the DTM Key Points. With orthorectification, only features on the surface of the ground are correctly positioned in the orthophotos. Objects above the surface of the ground, such as building rooftops and trees, may contain horizontal displacement due to image parallax experienced when the photos were captured. This is sometimes apparent along the cut lines between photos. For positioning of above-ground structures it is recommended to use the LiDAR point clouds for accurate horizontal placement.

The “Land Cover for Agricultural Regions of Canada (circa 2000), Date Index” dataset is a geospatial data layer containing polygon features representing the Landsat scene number, associated dates and other products that were incorporated into the thematic land cover classification which is contained within the AAFC Landcover (circa 2000) product.

This layer represents Land use polygons as determined by a combination of analytic techniques, mostly using Landsat 5 image mosaics . BTM 1 was done on a federal satellite image base that was only accurate to about 250m. The images were geo-corrected, not ortho-corrected, so there is distortion in areas of high relief. This is not a multipart feature

The “Land Cover for Agricultural Regions of Canada, circa 2000” is a thematic land cover classification representative of Circa 2000 conditions for agricultural regions of Canada. Land cover is derived from Landsat5-TM and/or 7-ETM+ multi-spectral imagery by inputting imagery and ground reference training data into a Decision-Tree or Supervised image classification process. Object segmentation, pixel filtering, and/or post editing is applied as part of the image classification. Mapping is corrected to the GeoBase Data Alignment Layer. National Road Network (1:50,000) features and other select existing land cover products are integrated into the product. UTM Zone mosaics are generated from individual 30 meter resolution classified scenes. A spatial index is available indicating the Landsat imagery scenes and dates input in the classification. This product is published and compiled by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), but also integrates products mapped by other provincial and federal agencies; with appropriate legend adaptations. This release includes UTM Zones 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22 for corresponding agricultural regions in Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Québec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia covering approximately 370,000,000 hectares of mapped area. Mapped classes include: Water, Exposed, Built-up, Shrubland, Wetland, Grassland, Annual Crops, Perennial Crops and Pasture, Coniferous, Deciduous and Mixed forests. However, emphasis is placed on accurately delineating agricultural classes, including: annual crops (cropland and specialty crops like vineyards and orchards), perennial crops (including pastures and forages), and grasslands.