2020 Land Cover of Canada

Land cover information is necessary for a large range of environmental applications related to climate impacts and adaption, emergency response, wildlife habitat, etc. In Canada, a 2008 user survey indicated that the most practical land cover data is provided in a nationwide 30 m spatial resolution format, with an update frequency of five years. In response to this need, the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS) has generated a 30 m land cover map of Canada for the years 2010, 2015 as well as this 2020 land cover map. This land cover dataset is also the Canadian contribution to the 30 m spatial resolution 2020 Land Cover Map of North America, which is produced by Mexican, American and Canadian government institutions under a collaboration called the North American Land Change Monitoring System (NALCMS). This land cover dataset for Canada is produced using observation from Operational Land Imager (OLI) Landsat sensor. An accuracy assessment based on 832 randomly distributed samples shows that land cover data produced with this new approach has achieved 86.9% accuracy with no marked spatial disparities.

Disclaimer: Maps for 2010 and 2015 were based on slightly different methodology. The 2020 Land Cover classification is an improvement of the previous maps, therefore representing a new baseline map that should not be compared with previous maps to assess change detection. Updated 2010 and 2015 maps will be published soon to allow users to perform change detection analysis.

- [Land Cover of Canada - Cartographic Product Collection](https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/11990a35-912e-4002-b197-d57dd88836d7)

Date ( RI_367 ): 2022-08

Date ( RI_366 ): 2022-08

RI_418

Government of Canada; Natural Resources Canada; Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - Rasim Latifovic ( Research Scientist )

Purpose: Information on land cover across Canada provided by this dataset is valuable for a range of audiences, including international organizations such as the United Nations Environment Programme, nongovernmental conservation organizations, land managers, and scientific researchers. The national scale land cover data can be used to address issues such as climate change, carbon sequestration, biodiversity loss, and changes in ecosystem structure and function, by helping users to better understand the dynamics and national-scale patterns of changing environment.

Credit: Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS)/Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation (CCMEO), Natural Resources Canada (NRCan)

Status: completed; complété RI_593

Maintenance and update frequency: asNeeded; auBesoin RI_540

Keywords ( RI_528 )

Land Cover
Remote Sensing
Landsat
Reflectance

Keywords ( RI_525 )

Mid-latitude
Western Hemisphere
Northern Hemisphere
North America
Canada

Government of Canada Core Subject Thesaurus Thésaurus des sujets de base du gouvernement du Canada ( RI_528 )

Geographical maps

Use limitation: Open Government Licence - Canada (http://open.canada.ca/en/open-government-licence-canada)

Access constraints: license; licence RI_606

Use constraints: license; licence RI_606

Spatial representation type: grid; grille RI_636

Metadata language: eng; CAN

Character set: utf8; utf8 RI_458

Topic category

Geoscientific information

Begin date: 2019

End date: 2021

Supplemental Information: The standard distribution formats for this dataset are listed below.

Natural Resources Canada has Land Cover information available online at:

https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/earth-sciences/land-surface-vegetation/land-cover/north-american-landcover/9146

Latifovic, R., Pouliot, D., and Olthof, I., (2017) Circa 2010 LandCover of Canada: Local Optimization Methodology and Product Development. Remote Sensing 2017,9,1098; doi:10.3390/rs9111098. Article describes the methodology used to produce the Landcover of Canada data provided in this data set.

The following list describes the display of land cover classification in the .tif file:

Value 1, Temperate or sub-polar needleleaf forest, RGB 0 61 0;

Value 2, Sub-polar taiga needleleaf forest, RGB 148 156 112;

Value 5, Temperate or sub-polar broadleaf deciduous forest, RGB 20 140 61;

Value 6, Mixed forest, RGB 92 117 43;

Value 8, Temperate or sub-polar shrubland, RGB 179 138 51;

Value 10, Temperate or sub-polar grassland, RGB 224 207 138;

Value 11, Sub-polar or polar shrubland-lichen-moss, RGB 156 117 84;

Value 12, Sub-polar or polar grassland-lichen-moss, RGB 186 212 143;

Value 13, Sub-polar or polar barren-lichen-moss, RGB 64 138 115;

Value 14, Wetland, RGB 107 163 138;

Value 15, Cropland, RGB 230 173 102;

Value 16, Barren lands, RGB 168 171 174;

Value 17, Urban, RGB 220 33 38;

Value 18, Water, RGB 76 112 163;

Value 19, Snow and Ice, RGB 255 250 255.