The National Ecological Framework for Canada's "Land and Water Area by Province/Territory and Ecoprovince” dataset provides land and water area values by province or territory for the Ecoprovince framework polygon, in hectares. It includes codes and their English and French descriptions for a polygon’s province or territory, total area, land-only area and large water body area.

Mapping of linear watercourses in the territory of Quebec City.**This third party metadata element was translated using an automated translation tool (Amazon Translate).**

Mapping of open water courses located inside the islands of the Laval territory.**This third party metadata element was translated using an automated translation tool (Amazon Translate).**

The "Hydrometric Gauging Stations of the AAFC Watersheds Project - 2013" dataset is a geospatial data layer containing point features representing the hydrometric gauging stations of the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) Watersheds Project. The gauging stations are sourced from Environment Canada, the United States and Canadian provinces. Additional virtual stations have been generated to address hydrometric structural issues, like river confluences or lake inlets. Attribute information includes station identification, location and associated catchments/basins.

The "Total Effective Drainage Areas of the AAFC Watersheds Project – 2013” dataset is a geospatial data layer containing polygon features representing the areas within the “total gross drainage areas” of each hydrometric gauging station of the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) Watersheds Project that would contribute to average runoff. A ‘total gross drainage area’ is the maximum area that could contribute runoff for a single gauging station – the ‘total effective drainage areas’ are those parts of that ‘total gross drainage area’ that would contribute surface runoff to an average runoff. For each “total gross drainage area” there can be only one “total effective drainage areas”. These polygons may overlap with those from other gauging stations’ “total gross drainage area”, as upstream land surfaces form part of multiple downstream gauging stations’ “total gross drainage areas”.

This product provides the ratio of surface freshwater intake to water yield for August 2013, with the exception of drainage regions 7, 8, 16, 17 and 18, which use the ratio of August intake to the long-term minimum monthly water yield. Surface freshwater intake aggregates data from the Survey of Drinking Water Plants, 2013 and the Industrial Water Use Survey, 2013 with estimates of agricultural water use for 2013 based on the Agricultural Water Use Survey and the Alberta Irrigation Information report. Data for water use by the oil and gas industry and households not supplied by a public water provider are also excluded.

The “Hydrometric Gauging Station Network of the AAFC Watersheds Project - 2013” dataset is a geospatial data layer containing network line features representing links between hydrometric gauging stations of the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) Watersheds Project. Each line connects a gauging station to its downstream neighbour(s), indicating its drainage direction. This network is a ‘drainage’ network, not a ‘stream’ network. That is, the lines do not in any way portray the actual stream path between stations. In some instances, a lake, for example, an area may have several gauging stations. In such cases, one of the gauging stations is designated the ‘primary’ gauging station for calculation purposes, and to maintain proper hydraulic relationships between gauging stations, where only the primary stations are connected to the downstream portion of the network.

The “Major Basins of the AAFC Watersheds Project - 2013” dataset is a geospatial data layer containing polygon features representing the 23 major basins of the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) Watersheds Project. The Project is subdivided by ‘incremental gross drainage areas’ associated to individual hydrometric gauging stations. The maximum area that could contribute runoff to each gauging station, less that of its upstream neighbour(s) is called an ‘incremental gross drainage area’. Conceptually, the major basins are collections of the “incremental gross drainage areas” associated with particular major river or lake reach (for example, reaches of the Saskatchewan or Athabasca River). In practice, each major basin consists of the collection of incremental gross drainage areas, whose gauging stations’ numbers have collections of the same three first characters. For example, the Assiniboine River major basin contains the incremental gross drainage areas whose gauging station numbers start with 05J, 05M, or 05N.

This theme includes the drainage areas of various watercourse monitoring stations (physicochemical and bacteriological, benthic organisms, diatoms, pesticides, etc.) carried out by the Ministry of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks (MELCCFP) as well as lake catchments (MELCCFP) as well as lake catchments including the majority of lakes in the Voluntary Lake Monitoring Network (RSVL). The drainage area and the watershed represent the territory whose water flows to the sampling station or to the outlet of the lake. Boundaries are generated using a geographic information system (GIS) from topographic maps, numerical elevation models and flow models, and watershed boundaries produced by the Main Directorate of Water Expertise (DPEH). The drainage area and watershed are used to calculate the area drained upstream of the sampling station or lake, to characterize the drained territory (for example, to determine land use), and to meet specific mapping needs. The linked tables also provide compilations of land use according to three classifications to contextualize the various monitoring carried out at the stations. Note that the use of land outside Quebec, drainage areas and transboundary watersheds is not calculated and that the percentages in each category correspond to the Quebec area only.**This third party metadata element was translated using an automated translation tool (Amazon Translate).**

This product provides the variability index for selected drainage regions in Canada. Variability is measured using a coefficient of variation (CV) to compare all months over a 42-year time period and is a measure of the dispersion or variation in the monthly yield values from 1971 to 2013 (and 1971 to 2012 for drainage region 1). It is defined as the ratio of the standard deviation to the mean or the standard deviation divided by the mean, with higher CVs indicating more variability in monthly water yields. The monthly variability was not calculated for drainage regions 5, 7, 8, 16, 17, 18, or the Labrador portion of 25.