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The Peat Application Area dataset depicts available land which may contain peat resources, and the requirement of a peat application in Alberta. Areas where peat exploration is not allowed due to environmental concerns such as the presence of waterbodies and rivers, trumpeter swan lakes, parks and protected areas, key wildlife and biodiversity areas, caribou zones, and HUC 8 watersheds with bull trout and arctic grayling were removed. This generalized product represents areas where a peat harvesting application can be submitted.

The Air and Watershed Resource Management Contacts and Boundaries dataset is comprised of all the polygons that represent the Air and Watershed Stewardship districts and the manager to contact with questions or concerns about environmental framework implementation and management response. This dataset was created to lend support to the Regulatory Assurance Division.

The Aquifer Vulnerability Index (AVI) is a method of assessing the vulnerability of aquifers to surface contaminants in Alberta. An aquifer is a geological formation that is permeable enough to transmit sufficient quantities of water to possible to support the development of water wells. In the assessment of aquifer vulnerability to potential contamination, the depth to the aquifer and the types of geological materials above them are considered. For example, aquifers closer to the surface overlain with pervious surface materials are more vulnerable to contaminants, as compared to aquifers found deeper and covered with a thick layer of impervious material. The AVI ratings indicate the potential of surficial materials to transmit water withy contaminants to the aquifer over a period of time. This data was created in 2002 using ArcGIS.

The data represents the density of wetland habitat in the agricultural region of Alberta in 2002. Wetlands are depressional areas that are wet for a long enough period that the plant and animals living in them are adapted to, and often dependent on, living in wet conditions for at least part of their life cycle. In drier areas of the province, wetlands tend to be more intermittent, while in wetter areas, wetlands tend to be more persistent. Topography also affects the occurrence of wetlands. Hummocky landscapes allow for pooling of water in depressions, while landscapes with longer slopes (e.g. the foothills) generally have better defined surface drainage patterns. A wetland in influenced by the interaction between the wet area, the wetland margin and upland area.Wetlands provide important habitat for waterfowl and many other types of wildlife. Wetlands reduce the impact of flooding, provide erosion control, purify water by removing sediment and nutrients, and contribute to groundwater recharge. This resource was created using ArcGIS.

Flood studies include detailed engineering reports and flood maps. The engineering reports are typically technical in nature and document the data, assumptions, and results of the hydrologic and hydraulic analyses required to create flood maps. Flood maps are created by combining hydraulic model results for different sized floods with high-accuracy ground information. Flood maps identify where water will flow during a flood, and what land could be flooded during different sized floods. Most flood maps focus on floods caused by high river flows when water escapes the river channel, most often experienced in spring or following summer rainstorms, but they can also show areas at risk from ice jam floods or document the extent of historic floods.Flood inundation maps show areas at risk for different sized floods, including ice jam floods in some communities, and identify areas protected by flood berms. Because they map a wide range of floods, they are most often used for emergency response planning and to inform local infrastructure design. Flood hazard maps define floodway and flood fringe areas for the 1:100 design flood and are typically used by communities for planning or to help make local land use and development decisions. The floodway is the portion of the flood hazard area where flows are deepest, fastest and most destructive. The flood fringe is the portion of the flood hazard area outside of the floodway, where flood water is generally shallower and flows slower than in the floodway. High hazard flood fringe is the area within the flood fringe with deeper or faster moving water than the rest of the flood fringe. Protected flood fringe identifies areas that could be flooded if dedicated flood berms fail or do not work as designed during the 1:100 design flood. Flood hazard maps define floodway and flood fringe areas for the 1:100 design flood and are typically used by communities for planning or to help make local land use and development decisions. Flood hazard maps can also illustrate additional information for communities to consider, including incremental areas at risk for floods larger than the 1:100 design flood, such as the 1:200 and 1:500 floods.Visit www.floodhazard.alberta.ca for more information about the Flood Hazard Identification Program. The website includes different sections for final flood studies and for draft flood studies. Flood maps can be viewed directly using the Flood Awareness Map Application at https://floods.alberta.ca/. The Alberta Flood Mapping GIS dataset is updated when new information is available or existing information changes. therefore, the Government of Alberta assumes no responsibility for discrepancies at the time of use. Users should check https://geodiscover.alberta.ca/ to verify they have the most recent version of the Alberta Flood Mapping GIS dataset.

Alberta Environment and Protected Areas developed an Interior habitat indicator for the province of Alberta. The indicator is the percentage area outside of a set distance from human footprint, and can be calculated for the entire province or a specific area where human footprint data are available. This dataset provides values for all Hydrologic Unit Code 8 (HUC 8) watersheds in Alberta for 2010, 2014, 2016 and 2018. The distance at which an area was considered interior habitat was estimated using rounded buffers from the edges of the wall-to-wall Human Footprint Inventories produced by the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI).

The data represents the relative cultivation intensity in the agricultural area of Alberta. Cultivation intensity refers to the frequency of cultivation associated with the following management systems: no till, conventional tillage and summerfallow. It is an estimate of the degree to which cultivation contributes to wind and water erosion. The classes shown on the map are ranked between 0 (lowest) and 1 (highest).This map was created in 2002 using ArcGIS.

This dataset defines the ecological areas of Alberta known as the Natural Regions and Natural Subregions, as defined in 2004/2005. This dataset is intended to allow for the stratification of the province of Alberta based on ecological criteria. Natural Regions are the largest mapped ecological units in Alberta's classification system. They are defined geographically on the basis of landscape patterns, notably vegetation, soils and physiographic features. Natural Subregions are subdivisions of a Natural Region, generally characterized by vegetation, climate, elevation, and latitudinal or physiographic differences within a given Region.The intended scale of use of this product is 1:250 000. This version is 2005 Final. Linework changes from the previous Natural Subregion delineation are due both to better information and refined subregion definitions. Note that the Athabasca Plain subregion has been moved into the Boreal Natural Region and that the Boreal Highlands has now been split into Lower and Upper. There is an accompanying report, published 2006: https://albertaparks.ca/media/2942026/nrsrcomplete_may_06.pdf