Ontario land cover data

Description

This data resource shows general land cover classification types for the province of Ontario. This information is provided by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (OMNR), and is based on the 1:250,000 National Topographic System (NTS) map sheets, and was made using Landsat TM imagery. The Geospatial Centre has access to data for all of Ontario, comprised of 3 separate land cover databases:

Far North Land Cover v1.4
Southern Ontario Land Resource Information System (SOLRIS) v1.2
the Provincial Land Cover 2000 Edition

The following is a list of the land cover classification types:

Water
Marshes
Open wetlands
Treed wetlands
Tundra heath
Dense deciduous forest
Early successional forest
Successional forest

Sparse forest
Mine tailings, quarries, bedrock outcrop, mud flats
Settlement and developed land
Agriculture
Unclassified areas (within and outside of province)

Spatial reference and data type

These data sets are available in geographic (lat/long) co-ordinates; horizontal datum is Norrth American Datum (NAD) 83. This data is stored as Esri shapefiles by the Geospatial Centre. Other data formats can be accommodated, as the Geospatial Centre has access to a number of conversion utilities.

Data access

In order to access this data set, please visit the Geospatial Centre reference desk during reference hours. Library reference staff are available to provide further information about these data sets and to deliver data upon request. Under the terms of the library's license agreement, these data sets are for use by students, faculty, and staff at the University of Waterloo only.

Data manipulation

There are public workstations in the Geospatial Centre that provide access to ArcGIS software programs, program extensions and data manipulation utilities. Patrons may use the Geographic Information System (GIS) and image processing software in the library to view and manipulate the data. UWaterloo faculty, students and staff may copy these data to other media.

Data output

This image may be exported from ArcGIS in a choice of bitmapped formats (also known as raster graphics) including JPG, TIFF, GIF, and BMP or in a choice of vector graphics formats including Adobe Illustrator (AI), Encapsulated Postscript (EPS), and Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). Yet another option is PDF.

Use restrictions/licensing/copyright

This material is provided for academic, research, teaching, and personal use only. A data release agreement must be agreed to before the data is released. The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources should be acknowledged on any derivative product, such as a map or an image.