The "Starter Kits" of the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI) are curated bundles of geospatial data delivered as a service. These kits are the result of a user needs assessment commissioned by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), with a primary focus on addressing the specific requirements of Indigenous Peoples. Within these kits, you'll discover a selection of data provided as a service from a collection of over 71,000 datasets falling under the "Nature and Environment" category sourced from CGDI's Federal and Provincial/Territorial partners. These Starter Kits have been thoughtfully crafted into four thematic or geographic areas of Canada: a) British Columbia, b) Northwest Territories, c) Climate Change across Canada, d) And Water Resources across Canada. Each of these kits represents diverse areas and data categories, offering new users a compact, comprehensive, and user-friendly gateway to explore a wide array of information provided by the CGDI.

The Indigenous Mining Agreements dataset provides information on the Indigenous communities signatory to agreements, the types of agreements negotiated, exploration projects and producing mines.

Data provided shows grants and contributions provided to Canadian firms by National Research Council (NRC) and its Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) between April 1, 2019 and March 31, 2020.

The fire regime describes the patterns of fire seasonality, frequency, size, spatial continuity, intensity, type (e.g., crown or surface fire) and severity in a particular area or ecosystem. The number of large fires refers to the annual number of fires greater than 200 hectares (ha) that occur per units of 100,000 ha. It was calculated per Homogeneous Fire Regime (HFR) zones. These HFR zones represent areas where the fire regime is similar over a broad spatial scale (Boulanger et al. 2014). Such zonation is useful in identifying areas with unusual fire regimes that would have been overlooked if fires had been aggregated according to administrative and/or ecological classifications. Fire data comes from the Canadian National Fire Database covering 1959–1999 (for HFR zones building) and 1959-1995 (for model building). Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) modeling was used to relate monthly fire regime attributes with monthly climatic/fire-weather in each HFR zone. Future climatic data were simulated using the Canadian Earth System Model version 2 (CanESM2) and downscaled at a 10 Km resolution using ANUSPLIN for two different Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP). RCPs are different greenhouse gas concentration trajectories adopted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for its fifth Assessment Report. RCP 2.6 (referred to as rapid emissions reductions) assumes that greenhouse gas concentrations peak between 2010-2020, with emissions declining thereafter. In the RCP 8.5 scenario (referred to as continued emissions increases) greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise throughout the 21st century. Multiple layers are provided. First, the number of large fires (>200 ha) is shown across Canada for a reference period (1981-2010). Projected number of large fires layers are available for the short- (2011-2040), medium- (2041-2070), and long-term (2071-2100) under the RCP 8.5 (continued emissions increases) and, for the long-term (2071-2100), under RCP 2.6 (rapid emissions reductions). Reference: Boulanger, Y., Gauthier, S., et al. 2014. A refinement of models projecting future Canadian fire regimes using homogeneous fire regime zones. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 44, 365–376.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) established a regulated area as part of its efforts to eradicate the Asian longhorned beetle (ALHB). With the regulation of this area, there are restrictions on the movement of nursery stock, trees, logs, lumber, wood, wood chips and bark chips from certain deciduous trees identified as hosts of the ALHB and firewood of all species. These restrictions are necessary to prevent the spread of the ALHB. This protects Canada's environment and forest resources, and also helps keep international markets open to the forest industry and nurseries in non-regulated parts of Ontario and in the rest of Canada.

The Indigenous Geographical Names dataset presents an extract from the Canadian Geographical Names Data Base (CGNDB) of geographical names with roots in Indigenous cultures. These geographical names reflect heritage, language, personal names, and cultural practices. Terrain and water features, populated places and culturally relevant places are geographical feature types present in the dataset. The Geographical Names Board of Canada (GNBC) is working to increase awareness of existing Indigenous place names and help promote the revitalization of Indigenous cultures and languages. Many more Indigenous place names exist in Canada, and this dataset will be constantly evolving as additional Indigenous place names are officially recognized and identified. The Geographical Names Board of Canada does not warrant or guarantee that the information is accurate, complete or current at all times. For more information, to report data errors, or to suggest improvements, please contact the GNBC Secretariat at Natural Resources Canada with questions or for more information. The CGNDB is the authoritative national database of Canada's geographical names. The purpose of the CGNDB is to store geographical names and their attributes that have been approved by the GNBC, the national coordinating body responsible for standards and policies on place names. This dataset is extracted from the CGNDB on a weekly basis, and consists of current officially approved names, feature type, coordinates of the feature, decision date, source, Indigenous language of origin where known, and other attributes.

This interactive map commemorates Canada’s participation in armed conflicts at home and abroad by highlighting a sample of the many geographical features and places named for those that served our country. These commemorative geographical names help us remember war casualties, soldiers, sailors, airmen and airwomen, military leaders, and civilians recognized or decorated for outstanding acts of bravery and sacrifice in battle. These names also commemorate notable battles in which Canada participated, and Canadian military units, regiments, squadrons, and ships in which Canadians served. Federal, provincial and territorial members of the Geographical Names Board of Canada provided these commemorative names for the development of the map. Many more commemorative place names exist in Canada, and will be added in future releases of this evergreen interactive map. If you would like to contribute names to this project, please contact the Geographical Names Board of Canada Secretariat at Natural Resources Canada.

Small area data (SAD) on field crops show seeded and harvested area, yield and production estimates for most principal field crops and some special crops in Canada. Most SAD geographies correspond exactly with the Census Agriculture Region (CAR) limits, excepts for some regions of Quebec (where small areas are defined by provincial administrative boundaries), Saskatchewan (where small areas coincide with census divisions boundaries as of 2017) and British Columbia. For exact correspondence between Census Agricultural Regions (CAR) and Small Area Data (SAD) Regions, see the following link: https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/statistical-programs/document/3401_D2_V2 These regions are associated with Statistics Canada estimates on principal field crops available in the following table: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3210000201

Fire weather refers to weather conditions that are conducive to fire. These conditions determine the fire season, which is the period(s) of the year during which fires are likely to start, spread and do sufficient damage to warrant organized fire suppression. The length of fire season is the difference between the start- and end-of-fire-season dates. These are defined by the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI; http://cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/) start-up and end dates. Start-up occurs when the station has been snow-free for 3 consecutive days, with noon temperatures of at least 12°C. For stations that do not report significant snow cover during the winter (i.e., less than 10 cm or snow-free for 75% of the days in January and February), start-up occurs when the mean daily temperature has been 6°C or higher for 3 consecutive days. The fire season ends with the onset of winter, generally following 7 consecutive days of snow cover. If there are no snow data, shutdown occurs following 7 consecutive days with noon temperatures lower than or equal to 5°C. Historical climate conditions were derived from the 1981–2010 Canadian Climate Normals. Future projections were computed using two different Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP). RCPs are different greenhouse gas concentration trajectories adopted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for its fifth Assessment Report. RCP 2.6 (referred to as rapid emissions reductions) assumes that greenhouse gas concentrations peak between 2010-2020, with emissions declining thereafter. In the RCP 8.5 scenario (referred to as continued emissions increases) greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise throughout the 21st century. Multiple layers are provided. First, the fire season length is shown across Canada for a reference period (1981-2010). Difference in projected fire season length compared to reference period is shown for the short- (2011-2040), medium- (2041-2070), and long-term (2071-2100) under the RCP 8.5 (continued emissions increases) and, for the long-term (2071-2100), under RCP 2.6 (rapid emissions reductions).

NHS as officially accepted by the Council of Ministers, mapping by Transport Canada.