***** This project was carried out by Environment and Climate Change Canada in collaboration with the MDDELCC as part of the St. Lawrence Action Plan (PASL). Since 1988, the governments of Canada and Quebec have worked together to conserve and enhance the St. Lawrence River as part of the St. Lawrence Action Plan (PASL). One of the projects identified under the theme of biodiversity conservation is the development of an integrated plan for the conservation of natural environments and biodiversity in the St. Lawrence. Identifying priority natural environments for the conservation of biodiversity was the first step in this planning exercise. However, planning for the conservation of natural environments requires having a fair, reliable, accurate and current image of the spatial distribution of ecosystems in the study area. In order to produce an Atlas of territories of interest for conservation in the St. Lawrence Lowlands, an updated mapping of land use in this vast territory was therefore undertaken. This project required the obtaining of reliable information on the natural environments of the St. Lawrence Lowlands. Although numerous and excellent cartographic products already exist to delimit different types of environments, they often cover well-circumscribed regions and it was therefore particularly important to obtain a homogeneous product throughout the territory. At the same time, this makes it possible to obtain the best information on its various components: Agricultural, aquatic, anthropogenic, wooded, humid environments as well as wastelands and bare soils. The mapping of land use in the St. Lawrence Lowlands is thus mainly based on grouping and improving the best existing products for each of the themes.**This third party metadata element was translated using an automated translation tool (Amazon Translate).**

Updated on May 17, 2022, the CRHQ is a cartographic tool that brings together ecological information and knowledge on aquatic ecosystems in Quebec to support decision-making. It provides a hierarchical framework for mapping and characterizing aquatic ecosystems based on the processes that govern their functioning. First of all, it provides aquatic ecological units (AEUs), which correspond to portions of the surface hydrographic network that present a certain homogeneity in their physical characteristics that condition aquatic biotopes. The CRHQ also includes information on the hydro-geomorphology, hydraulics, physico-chemistry and hydrology of aquatic ecosystems that are associated with reference points distributed on the hydrographic network. To access the files, which are hosted on an FTP site, it is recommended to use either FileZilla (https://filezilla-project.org/) or Internet Explorer.**This third party metadata element was translated using an automated translation tool (Amazon Translate).**