The Riparian Area Assessment of Red Deer River watershed includes the Buffalo, Kneehills, Little Red Deer and Threehills subwatershed. This project focused on assessing riparian habitat along lake, creek, stream and river shorelines. This dataset was created for the Red Deer River Watershed Alliance as a part of a large scale riparian area assessment in Alberta. The overall goal of this project was to quantify and characterize the intactness of riparian management areas in the Red Deer River watershed. Riparian habitat was assessed along approximately 5,285 km of shoreline within the Buffalo, Kneehills, Little Red Deer, and Threehills subwatersheds. These four subwatersheds cover an area of ~11,754 km2 and are located in central Alberta, roughly between Ponoka and Airdrie.

This GIS dataset covers the four types of decontamination zones for whirling disease in Alberta, and identifies the inherent risk categories for each. These boundaries are to be used by Government of Alberta field staff and industry, as described in the Alberta Decontamination Protocol for Watercraft & Equipment. (1) Confirmed Red Zones are zones with CFIA confirmed positive testing for whirling disease and are based on a 'HUC 10' level as found in the Hydrologic Unit Coded Watersheds of Alberta dataset. Irrigation Red Zones are similar to confirmed red zones, however are based on Irrigation District boundaries and only apply to irrigation canals. (2) Yellow Zones represent high to moderate risk for the introduction/spread of whirling disease due to one or more of the following criteria: susceptible salmonid species present, high recreational activity/use and access to water, and high population base. (3) White Zonesdo not have any confirmed cases of whirling disease and represent lower risk due to lower population base and less activity/use.

These data points are sites visited by Dr. Jozsef Toth during his 1964 to 1969 fieldwork. Dr. Toth is a distinguished hydrogeologist who developed and published his landmark 'Unit Basin' theory of steady state flow leading to the fundamental concept in hydrogeology known as 'Tothian flow system theory'. His contributions to hydrogeology turned the Research Council of Alberta, and subsequently the University of Alberta, into internationally renowned institutions for hydrogeological research. All datapoints relate to the sites in Alberta Geological Survey report INF 143. Field parameters (Temperature, Electrical Conductivity, and Flow Volumes) measured or estimated were retained as attributes to the point data. The data are in ESRI shapefile format.