A population ecumene is the area of inhabited lands or settled areas generally delimited by a minimum population density. This ecumene shows the areas of the densest and most extended population within census divisions. Census divisions are the provincially legislated areas (such as county, municipalité régionale de comté, and regional district) or their equivalents. Census divisions are intermediate geographic areas between the province or territory level and the municipality (census subdivision). For further information, consult the Statistics Canada’s 2016 Illustrated Glossary (see below under Data Resources). The assemblage of dissemination area population density data from the 2016 Census of Population are used to form the ecumene within census divisions. Areas included in the ecumene are dissemination areas where the population density is greater than or equal to 0.4 persons per square kilometre or about one person per square mile. In some areas to capture more population within the ecumene the criteria was extended to 0.2 persons per square kilometre. The ecumene areas were generalized in certain areas to enhance the size of some isolated ecumene areas in northern Canada. This map can be used as an “ecumene” overlay to differentiate the sparsely populated areas from the ecumene in conjunction with census division data or other small-scale maps. This ecumene shows a more meaningful distribution of the population for Canada.

A population ecumene is the area of inhabited lands or settled areas generally delimited by a minimum population density. Two population data sets from the 2016 Census of Population were used to build two specialized ecumene maps. The census division ecumene was built from dissemination area population density data and the census subdivision ecumene was built from the dissemination block population density data. For information on census divisions, census subdivisions, dissemination areas, and dissemination blocks consult the Statistics Canada’s 2016 Illustrated Glossary (see below under Data Resources). Areas included in the ecumene (for either the census division or census subdivision) are areas where the population density is greater than or equal to 0.4 persons per square kilometre or about 1 person per square mile. In some areas to capture more population within the ecumene the criteria was extended to 0.2 persons per square kilometre. The ecumene areas were generalized in certain regions either to enhance the size of some isolated ecumene areas or to remove small internal uninhabited areas within the ecumene. Either of these ecumene resources can be used as an “ecumene” map overlay to differentiate the sparsely populated areas from the ecumene in conjunction with the appropriate census geography or other small-scale and large-scale maps.

A population ecumene is the area of inhabited lands or settled areas generally delimited by a minimum population density. This ecumene shows the areas of the densest and most extended population within census subdivisions. A census subdivision (CSD) is the general term for municipalities (as determined by provincial or territorial legislation) or areas treated as municipal equivalents for statistical purposes (e.g., Indigenous Peoples reserves and communities and unorganized territories). Municipal status is defined by laws in effect in each province and territory in Canada. For further information, consult the Statistics Canada’s 2016 Illustrated Glossary (see below under Data Resources). The assemblage of dissemination block population density data from the 2016 Census of Population are used to form the ecumene areas within census subdivisions. Areas included in the ecumene are dissemination blocks where the population density is greater than or equal to 0.4 persons per square kilometre or about one person per square mile. In some areas to capture more population within the ecumene the criteria was extended to 0.2 persons per square kilometre. The ecumene areas were generalized in certain areas to remove small uninhabited areas within the ecumene areas in census subdivisions. This map can be used as an “ecumene” overlay to differentiate the sparsely populated areas from the ecumene in conjunction with census subdivision data or other large-scale maps. This ecumene shows a more meaningful distribution of the population for Canada.

The RVI/CVI database is derived from the CanEcumene 3.0 GDB (Eddy, et. al. 2023) using a selection of socio-economic variables identified in Eddy and Dort (2011) that aim to capture the overall state of socio-economic conditions of communities as ‘human habitats’. This dataset was developed primarily for application in mapping socio-economic conditions of communities and regions for environmental and natural resource management, climate change adaptation, Impact Assessments (IAs) and Regional Assessments (RAs), and Cumulative Effects Assessment (CEA). The RVI/CVI is comprised of five sub-indicators: 1) population change, 2) age structure, 3) education levels, 4) employment levels, and 5) real estate values. Index values are based on percentile ranks of each sub-indicator, and averaged for each community, and for three ranked groups: 1) all of Canada, 2) by province, and 3) by population size. The data covers the Census periods of 2001, 2006, 2011 (NHS), 2016, and 2021. The index is mapped in two ways: 1) as ‘points’ for individual communities (CVI), and 2) as ‘rasters’ for spatial interpolation of point data (RVI). These formats provide an alternative spatial framework to conventional StatsCan CSD framework. (For more information on this approach see Eddy, et. al. 2020). ============================================================================================ Eddy, B.G., Muggridge, M., LeBlanc, R., Osmond, J., Kean, C., and Boyd, E. 2023. The CanEcumene 3.0 GIS Database. Federal Geospatial Platform (FGP), Natural Resources Canada. https://gcgeo.gc.ca/viz/index-en.html?keys=draft-3f599fcb-8d77-4dbb-8b1e-d3f27f932a4b Eddy B.G., Muggridge M, LeBlanc R, Osmond J, Kean C, Boyd E. 2020. An Ecological Approach for Mapping Socio-Economic Data in Support of Ecosystems Analysis: Examples in Mapping Canada’s Forest Ecumene. One Ecosystem 5: e55881. https://doi.org/10.3897/oneeco.5.e55881 Eddy, B.G.; Dort, A. 2011. Integrating Socio-Economic Data for Integrated Land Management (ILM): Examples from the Humber River Basin, western Newfoundland. Geomatica, Vol. 65, No. 3, p. 283-291. doi:10.5623/cig2011-044.

“Ecumene” is a term used by geographers, meaning “inhabited lands.” Populated places in the ecumene database are referenced using natural boundaries, as opposed to administrative or census boundaries, and provide a more suitable means for integrating socio-economic data with ecological and environmental data in a region. The Canadian Ecumene GeoDatabase 3.0 includes the custom boundaries for more than 3,000 populated areas across Canada, many of which were derived from remote-sensing “night-lights” imagery. Each ecumene place has a corresponding set of attributes pertaining to place name, province, ecozone, indigenous communities, and other descriptive information, as well as an initial custom set of demographic variables derived from Statistics Canada Census and National Household Survey data for 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016. A number of additional layers are also included that map the extents of Canada's ecumene in alternate ways, using transportation and utility networks, nightlights imagery, and population density. (NOTE: In the list below, the V2 Shape, KML, and TIFF files have not changed for the CanEcumene 3.0) Provided layer: The Canadian Ecumene (CanEcumene) 3.0 GIS Database ============================================================================================ Database Citation (Update): Eddy, B.G., Muggridge, M., LeBlanc, R., Osmond, J., Kean, C., and Boyd, E. 2023. The CanEcumene 3.0 GIS Database. Federal Geospatial Platform (FGP), Natural Resources Canada. https://open.canada.ca Methods Publication Citation: Eddy B, Muggridge M, LeBlanc R, Osmond J, Kean C, Boyd E (2020) An Ecological Approach for Mapping Socio-Economic Data in Support of Ecosystems Analysis: Examples in Mapping Canada’s Forest Ecumene. One Ecosystem 5: e55881. https://doi.org/10.3897/oneeco.5.e55881

The Labour Force Distribution (LFD) maps are derived from the CanEcumene 2.0 Geodatabase using custom tabulations of census-based labour force data. These LFD maps were calculated for each of the five major natural resource sectors in Canada: Forestry, Fisheries, Agriculture, Minerals, and Petroleum and Coal. The measure used is the labour force of each sector as a proportion of the goods-producing sectors in the economy. Labour force proportions were first calculated at the individual community level, and then interpolated on a regional level using GIS (see Eddy et. al. 2020 for more detail). In effect, these maps show the strong importance of Canada’s natural resource sectors in various regions of the country. The darker the tone in each map indicates a region’s higher degree of dependency on a given sector for their economic livelihood.

The Indigenous Populations of Canada map is derived from the CanEcumene 2.0 Geodatabase using custom tabulations of census-based population data. Indigenous communities within the level of the census sub-division (CSD) were identified using a combination of sources from census field data (see Eddy et. al. 2020 for more details). This map shows the percent of Indigenous population in CanEcumene 2.0 communities using graduated symbols, overlaid upon a population density raster. The larger the symbol, the higher the percentage of Indigenous population in that area. The darker the colour in the underlying raster, the denser is the general population. This map illustrates how the majority of Indigenous populations reside in locations outside of the denser populated areas of Canada.

The Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) is the largest of all sea lions and enjoys a lifespan of up to thirty years. In Canada, the Steller can be spotted along the rocky coast of British Columbia. These highly mobile marine mammals typically travel alone or in small groups, but they congregate in large numbers at traditional rookeries and haul-outs during the mating and pupping season. The population was severely depleted in Canada but following its protection in 1970, the size of the adult population has more than doubled. The survey targeted Steller sea lions and sites were chosen based on knowledge of historically occupied rookeries and haul-out sites with nearby areas monitored for potential shifts in distribution. This dataset contains counts that have been collected from sightings of individuals in the 2016/2017 survey season.

Considered the "king" of sea lions, the Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) is the biggest of all sea lions and enjoys a lifespan of up to thirty years. In Canada, the Steller can be spotted along the rocky coast of British Columbia. This hefty mammal usually travels alone or in a small group, but wisely, it joins others for protection during the mating and birthing season. Little is known about its oceanic lifestyle; however, the good news for this sea-loving mammal is that since the Steller sea lion first became protected in 1970, the size of the adult population has more than doubled. Recent trends in the abundance of Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) in British Columbia were assessed based on a series of thirteen province-wide aerial surveys conducted during the breeding season (27-June to 06-July) between 1971 and 2013.

To assess the current distribution of kelp beds and other macroalgae in Nova Scotia and Southwest New Brunswick, subtidal drop camera surveys were performed from 2022-2023 at 140 sites. For each site, a GoPro HERO 10 camera was towed along a deep (7-12m) and shallow (3-5m) depth contour until 20 images were acquired per depth. Where possible, species were identified from photos, with particular care given to kelps (defined here as orders Laminariales and Tilopteridales) and fucoids (order Fucales). Crust-forming algae was not counted. Percent cover was calculated using a 10x10 point grid overlaid on each image and recording the dominant cover type at each point. The depth (in meters) of each photo after correcting for tide height ranged from ~0.5m to ~12m. Depths were corrected to chart datum (lowest astronomical tide) using tide predictions from the nearest tide station, taken from tides.gc.ca. Sampling was performed between July and October. Cite this data as: Krumhansl K, Brooks C, Lowen B, DiBacco C, (2025). Camera Surveys of the Subtidal Flora of Nova Scotia and Southwest New Brunswick 2022-2023. Version 1.7. Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Samplingevent dataset. https://ipt.iobis.org/obiscanada/resource?r=camera_surveys_of_the_subtidal_flora_of_nova_scotia_2022-2023&v=1.7 For additional information please see: Krumhansl K.A., Brooks C.M., Lowen B., O’Brien J., Wong M., DiBacco C. Loss, resilience and recovery of kelp forests in a region of rapid ocean warming. Annals of Botany 2024 Mar 8; 133(1):73-92. Brooks C.M., Krumhansl K.A. 2023. First record of the Asian Antithamnion sparsum Tokida, 1932 (Ceramiales, Rhodophyta) in Nova Scotia, Canada. BioInvasions Records 12(3):745-725.