The Canadian Drought Monitor (CDM) brings together Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's drought monitoring capabilities and collaboration with external agencies (federal and provincial) to produce, through analysis and consolidation of multiple indices and indicators, an easily understood comprehensive national drought severity map and report each month. The monitor provides specific details on agricultural impacts of the current drought situation, including statistics on land area, cattle, and the number of producers impacted. The Canadian Drought Monitors are based on a five class system ranking the severity of the drought condition. The Monitor map identifies general drought areas, labelling droughts by intensity, with D1 being the least intense and D4 being the most intense. The classifications are as follows: D0 (Abnormally Dry) - represents an event that occurs once every 3-5 years; D1 (Moderate Drought) - represents an event that occurs every 5-10 years; D2 (Severe Drought) - represents an event that occurs every 10-20 years; D3 (Extreme Drought) - represents an event that occurs every 20-25 years; and D4 (Exceptional Drought) - represents an event that occurs every 50 years. D0 is not recognized as a drought classification; however, it provides a warning of areas that are currently vulnerable to drought or areas that are recovering from drought. For more information visit: https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/292646cd-619f-4200-afb1-8b2c52f984a2

The “Oilseeds Science Sector by CCS” data was derived from the 2011 Census of Agriculture using published documentation describing the Science Sector. It was created for facilitating the geographic description, analysis, and reporting of the sector. The selection of 2011 Census of Agriculture variables was derived from the “AAFC Science and Technology Branch Science Strategy for the AgriFood Sector “Oilseed sector”” ;“At present, the strategy covers the following crop types: canola and rapeseed, mustard, soybeans (oilseed and food-grade), flax, sunflower, hemp, safflower” NOTE: The identified “hemp” and “safflower” making up part of the this sector are not included in this dataset because the data, although collected in the 2011 Census of Agriculture, was published as “Other crops” along with a number of other crops not included in this scope of this sector. For more information, visit: www.agr.gc.ca/atlas/metadata/1f4dcc5c-23d8-4b08-a98e-64c1c93f083c

The Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's LiDAR Projects dataset was created from existing spatial data. It contains the footprints (outlines) of all the LiDAR data that is openly distributed by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) is a method of acquiring survey points using optical remote sensing technology. The dataset indicates basic information about the location, source and properties of the data. For more information, visit: http://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/a760f9e0-7013-4187-9261-2e69b01edd9a

Contour Lines generated from LiDAR data captured by McElhanney Consulting Services Ltd (MCSL). The contour lines connect points of equal elevation for the landscape covered by this project. For more information, visit: http://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/9bdc1a9c-baf7-4eb0-a532-c1057b284b8f

In 2012, the Earth Observation Team of the Science and Technology Branch (STB) at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) repeated the process of generating annual crop inventory digital maps using satellite imagery to for all of Canada (except Newfoundland), in support of a national crop inventory. A Decision Tree (DT) based methodology was applied using optical (DMC, SPOT) and radar (Radarsat-2) based satellite images, and having a final spatial resolution of 30m. In conjunction with satellite acquisitions, ground-truth information was provided by provincial crop insurance companies and point observations from our regional AAFC colleagues. For more information, visit: http://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/621bb298-116f-4931-8350-741855b007bc

In 2016, the Earth Observation Team of the Science and Technology Branch (STB) at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) repeated the process of generating annual crop inventory digital maps using satellite imagery to for all of Canada, in support of a national crop inventory. A Decision Tree (DT) based methodology was applied using optical (Landsat-8, Sentinel-2, Gaofen-1) and radar (RADARSAT-2) based satellite images, and having a final spatial resolution of 30m. In conjunction with satellite acquisitions, ground-truth information was provided by: provincial crop insurance companies in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Quebec; point observations from the BC Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs; and data collection supported by our regional AAFC Research and Development Centres in St. John's, Kentville, Charlottetown, Fredericton, Guelph, and Summerland. For more information, visit: http://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/b8e4da73-fb5f-4e6e-93a4-8b1f40d95b51

The 'Land Cover for Agricultural Regions of Canada, circa 2000' is a thematic land cover classification representative of Circa 2000 conditions for agricultural regions of Canada. Land cover is derived from Landsat5-TM and/or 7-ETM+ multi-spectral imagery by inputting imagery and ground reference training data into a Decision-Tree or Supervised image classification process. Object segmentation, pixel filtering, and/or post editing is applied as part of the image classification. Mapping is corrected to the GeoBase Data Alignment Layer. National Road Network (1:50,000) features and other select existing land cover products are integrated into the product. UTM Zone mosaics are generated from individual 30 meter resolution classified scenes. A spatial index is available indicating the Landsat imagery scenes and dates input in the classification. This product is published and compiled by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), but also integrates products mapped by other provincial and federal agencies; with appropriate legend adaptations. This release includes UTM Zones 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22 for corresponding agricultural regions in Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Québec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia covering approximately 370,000,000 hectares of mapped area. Mapped classes include: Water, Exposed, Built-up, Shrubland, Wetland, Grassland, Annual Crops, Perennial Crops and Pasture, Coniferous, Deciduous and Mixed forests. However, emphasis is placed on accurately delineating agricultural classes, including: annual crops (cropland and specialty crops like vineyards and orchards), perennial crops (including pastures and forages), and grasslands. For more information, visit: http://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/16d2f828-96bb-468d-9b7d-1307c81e17b8

The 'Circa 1995 Landcover of the Prairies' dataset is a geospatial raster data layer portraying the rudimentary land cover types of all grain-growing areas of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and northeastern British Columbia at a 30-metre resolution for the 1995 timeframe. It is the collection of all the classified imagery (1993 to 1995) of the Western Grain Transition Payment Program (WGTPP) assembled into a single seamless raster data layer. For more information, visit: http://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/e9dee957-e04d-46fb-b7e4-701739736173

The 2010 Plant Hardiness Zones of Canada outlines the different zones in Canada where various types of trees, shrubs and flowers will most likely survive. It is based on the average climatic conditions of each area. The first such map for North America, released by the United States Department of Agriculture in 1960, was based only on minimum winter temperatures. In 1967, Agriculture Canada scientists created a plant hardiness map using Canadian plant survival data and a wider range of climatic variables, including minimum winter temperatures, length of the frost-free period, summer rainfall, maximum temperatures, snow cover, January rainfall and maximum wind speed. Natural Resources Canada's Canadian Forest Service scientists have now updated the plant hardiness zones using the same variables and more recent climate data (1961-90). They have used modern climate mapping techniques and incorporated the effect of elevation. The new map indicates that there have been changes in the hardiness zones that are generally consistent with what is known about climate change. These changes are most pronounced in western Canada. The new hardiness map is divided into nine major zones: the harshest is 0 and the mildest is 8. Subzones (e.g., 4a or 4b, 5a or 5b) are also noted in the map legend. These subzones are most familiar to Canadian gardeners. Some significant local factors, such as micro-topography, amount of shelter and subtle local variations in snow cover, are too small to be captured on the map. Year-to-year variations in weather and gardening techniques can also have a significant impact on plant survival in any particular location. For more information see: http://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/50f9f293-f288-4de6-98ad-f69cf85d21ea

The "Prairie Agricultural Landscapes (PAL)" datasets identify areas of the agricultural portions of the Canadian Prairies with similar land and water resources, land use and farming practices. They are represented by vector polygons. Based on selected attributes from the Soil Landscapes of Canada (SLC) and the 1996 Census of Agriculture, the Prairies were classified into 13 (thirteen) classes of Land Practices Group and five (5) Major Land Practices Groups. Typical attributes used to define the Land Practice Groups include: land in pasture, land in summerfallow, crop mixture, farm size and the level of chemical and fertilizer inputs. The five (5) Major Groups were devised to help better understand the relationships between the groups. For more information, visit: https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/0b2303be-ef05-49a8-8082-44a3eabcfa57