Since 1988, the governments of Canada and Quebec have been working together to conserve, restore, protect and develop the St. Lawrence River under the St. Lawrence Action Plan (SLAP). One of the projects identified under the theme of biodiversity conservation is the development of an integrated plan for the conservation of the natural environments and biodiversity of the St. Lawrence River.The identification of priority sites for conservation has been the first step of this planning exercise. Conservation planning of natural environments requires a reliable, accurate and up-to-date image of the spatial distribution of ecosystems in the study area. In order to produce an Atlas of Priority Sites for Conservation in the St. Lawrence Lowlands, an updated cartography of the land cover of this vast territory was undertaken.This project required obtaining reliable information on the natural environments of the St. Lawrence Lowlands. Although several land cover mapping projects have been conducted for specific types of habitats, it was particularly important to obtain a homogeneous product that would cover the entire territory and that would provide the most detailed information on its various thematic components: agricultural, aquatic, human-modified and forest environments, wetlands as well as old fields and bare ground. The methodology used to produce the land cover mapping of the St. Lawrence Lowlands thus relied mainly on combining and enhancing the best existing products for each theme. This project was made in collaboration with MDDELCC as part of the St. Lawrence Action Plan (SLAP).

Natural environments**This third party metadata element was translated using an automated translation tool (Amazon Translate).**

Natural areas of interest in the City of Trois-Rivières**This third party metadata element was translated using an automated translation tool (Amazon Translate).**

The purpose of the cartographic data resulting from analyses of the ecological connectivity of natural environments in the St. Lawrence lowlands is to equip users by making it possible to integrate the concepts of ecological connectivity and the quality of the habitat of natural terrestrial environments into conservation issues. It is a knowledge tool for recognizing natural environments of importance for ecological connectivity in the St. Lawrence Lowlands region. This data is the result of research conducted by McGill University and its partners (Apex Resource Management Solutions, Quebec Center for Biodiversity Science and Habitat) on behalf of the Ministry of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, and its partners (Apex Resource Management Solutions, Wildlife and Parks) (MELCCFP).**This third party metadata element was translated using an automated translation tool (Amazon Translate).**

This dataset shows the boundaries of systems of natural heritage features and areas, lands and waters that support connectivity and have significant ecological value. It includes areas defined in provincial plans such as the: * [Greenbelt Plan](https://www.ontario.ca/document/greenbelt-plan-2017) * [Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan](https://www.ontario.ca/page/oak-ridges-moraine-conservation-plan-2017) * [Niagara Escarpment Plan](https://www.escarpment.org/LandPlanning/NEP) * [Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe](https://www.ontario.ca/document/place-grow-growth-plan-greater-golden-horseshoe)  This dataset does not include modifications to systems made by municipal governments as part of their official plans.

The Plains, Northern, Foothills Boundary feature class contains polygon features representing Department of Energy Regional Boundaries for the Province of Alberta.

Ecological Reserves are part of a network of Designated Areas. The goal of the network is to create and maintain a comprehensive, dynamic and accessible data set (digital map) that accurately defines land areas in Saskatchewan that have various levelUnique ecological reserves that are designed to protect representative areas of natural landscapes and to conserve biological diversity.

The Canadian indexes of social resilience and vulnerability were created to provide area-based information on resilience and vulnerability to natural hazards and disasters across Canada. Specifically, the Canadian Index of Social Resilience (CISR) aims to reflect a community’s ability to respond to and recover from natural hazards. In contrast, the Canadian Index of Social Vulnerability (CISV) aims to reflect the social vulnerability of an area based on factors that have the potential to amplify the impact of disasters on populations.Before the CISR and CISV were built, indicator frameworks were developed for social resilience and social vulnerability, respectively. Indicators were selected because of their demonstrated association with social resilience or social vulnerability. The selection was informed by the theoretical and research literature, existing indexes, availability of relevant data and engagement with subject-matter experts.The CISR and the CISV were created using data from Dissemination areas (DAs) across the country. The selected indicators were included in a principal component analysis, which is a statistical technique that allows a large number of indicators to be collapsed into a smaller number of interpretable components. Based on the results of the principal component analysis, DA-level scores were calculated for each index. Higher CISR scores correspond to DAs that are more resilient and higher CISV scores correspond to DAs that are more vulnerable.These indexes can be used to better understand areas which may experience the largest disproportional social impacts from natural hazards.

Watercourses are line features - natural or manmade - that represent the location of flowing surface water. This product requires the use of geographic information system (GIS) software.

The Saskatchewan Parks Boundaries dataset includes Provincial Parks (PP), Recreation Sites (RS), and Historic Sites (HS) as described in the The Parks Act, The Recreation Sites Regulations, 1991, and The Historic Sites Regulations, respectively.The Saskatchewan Parks Boundaries dataset is a version managed by the Saskatchewan Ministry of Parks, Culture and Sport that more closely matches the intent of the descriptions in The Parks Act, The Recreation Sites Regulations, 1991, and The Historic Sites Regulations than the dataset provided by Information Services Corporation (ISC). The last update was completed on Sept 22, 2021, to reflect changes as per the latest Recreation Sites Regulations amendment. The park types listed in the dataset include: 1) Provincial Parks, i.e., Natural Environment Parks (NE), Recreation Parks (RP), Wilderness Parks (WP), and Historic Parks (HP); 2) Recreation Sites (RS);   3) Protected Area (PR); and  4) HS Historic Sites (HS). Please visit https://geohub.saskatchewan.ca for more information or to download this data.