Study Area defined in the Agreement to Conduct a Regional Assessment of Offshore Wind Development in Nova Scotia. The study area was created by the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada in collaboration with Natural Resources Canada and the province of Nova Scotia.

Depicts priority area for work under the Regional Assessment of Offshore Wind Development in Newfoundland and Labrador. The Committee for the Regional Assessment of Offshore Wind Development in Newfoundland and Labrador (Committee) is responsible for providing information, knowledge and analysis regarding future offshore wind development (OSW) to inform and improve future planning, licencing and impact assessment processes. The Committee’s mandate is set out in the Agreement to Conduct the Regional Assessment of Offshore Wind Development in Newfoundland and Labrador (Agreement), and includes assessing potential environmental, health, social and economic effects of future OSW. The Agreement includes a broad Study Area. In November 2023, the Committee determined OSW interest in the foreseeable future is more likely within a portion of the Study Area set out in the Agreement. The Committee defined this portion of the Study Area as the assessment's Focus Area. The Committee continues to conduct the Regional Assessment (i.e., present information on existing conditions and consider potential impacts of OSW) within the Focus Area. The Committee's decision to define the Focus Area and supporting rationale is available here: https://iaac-aeic.gc.ca/050/evaluations/document/153431 The Agreement to conduct the Regional Assessment is available here: https://iaac-aeic.gc.ca/050/documents/p84343/147037E.pdf

This dataset is a combination of landscape unit, biogeoclimatic zone/subzone/variants and Cariboo Chilcotin Land Use Plan (CCLUP) leading group type (PineGroup or FirGroup) used to roll up seral stage assessments in the Cariboo Natural Resource Region. Refer to the **Cariboo Regional Biodiversity Conservation Strategy Update Note #2: Amalgamation of Small NDT-BEC Units in Relation to Assessment of Seral Objectives and Old Growth Management Area Planning** and **Cariboo Regional Biodiversity Conservation Strategy Update Note #3: Definition of the Fir Group and Pine Group for Purposes of Seral Stage Assessments within NDT 4 of the Cariboo-Chilcotin** (see below under "Related Links") for more information on how seral stage assessment amalgamation units are derived.

This geospatial data depicts potential development areas (PDAs) recommended by the Committee for the Regional Assessment of Offshore Wind Development in Nova Scotia.The Committee for the Regional Assessment of Offshore Wind Development in Nova Scotia (Committee) provides federal and provincial Ministers with information, knowledge, and analysis regarding future offshore wind (OSW) development in Nova Scotia. Its work is intended to inform and improve future planning, licencing, permitting, and impact assessment processes.Under the Terms of Reference, the Committee submitted an interim report to Ministers on March 23, 2024. This report included the preliminary identification of recommended areas for potential future development areas (PFDAs) for offshore wind. Based on work completed since the interim report, the Committee issued its final report on January 23, 2025, which included refined development areas, the Potential Development Areas (PDAs). These PDAs are based on technical feasibility (using available information) and have the least impact on other offshore users. It should be noted that the PDAs are recommendations only and do not reflect official offshore wind energy areas.

DFO has committed to establishing a representative network of Marine Conservation Areas collectively comprising 30% of the EEZ by 2030. The MCT 2.0 program was established in 2021 to help achieve this target and establish long-term monitoring within Canadian conservation areas. Information on the distribution of species within a protected area is essential for the management and monitoring of a site. Decisions made on zoning, risk assessment, activity approvals and management effectiveness all require information on the distribution and status of species. The Scotian Shelf-Bay of Fundy Bioregion spans the domain of the Maritimes Region, and within it there are 8 Marine Refuges (MR), 3 Marine Protected Areas (MPA), and 2 Areas of Interest (AOI). Environmental DNA (eDNA) offers a promising approach for biodiversity monitoring that has been gaining increased attention in the marine realm. Through sampling relatively small volumes of water (~3L), eDNA can capture of millions of fragments of eDNA on specialized filters that can then be sequenced to identify the species composition of an area. eDNA metabarcoding is based on the foundations of DNA barcoding, where species are identified solely by their unique DNA sequences. This method is relatively simple, efficient (with the ability to characterize both fish and invertebrate diversity), and non-invasive, meaning there is no disruption of sensitive benthic habitats or need to dissect tissue samples from captured fish and invertebrates. eDNA has been shown to be comparable to other biodiversity censusing techniques and has the potential to rapidly conduct biodiversity surveys over a relatively large area, such as the Eastern Shore Islands AOI. The DFO Maritimes summer multispecies trawl survey is one of the longest-running data series with applications in fisheries stock assessment, and one of the only sources of data for offshore MPA design and monitoring. In this project we pair eDNA samples collected within current and proposed conservation areas with trawl catch data to create a biodiversity and animal community monitoring time series for these areas. We use eDNA and trawl catch data as complementary tools, where trawl-based catch provides information on fish abundance, size distributions and sex, and eDNA provides information on genetic diversity and can detect cryptic and rare species. Cite this data as: Jeffery, N.W. Monitoring regional conservation areas using paired environmental DNA and research trawl surveys. Published: May 2026. Coastal Ecosystems Science Division, Maritimes Region, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Dartmouth NS.

ENV - Environment and conservation (environment)Environmental resources, protection, and conservation. For example, resources describing pollution, waste storage and treatment, environmental impact assessment, environmental risk, and nature reserves. )

An ecoregion is an area with major physiographic and minor macroclimatic or oceanographic variation. There are 43 ecoregion in British Columbia of which 39 are terrestrial. Ecodivsions are meant to be mapped at 1:500,000 for regional strategic planning

Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification (BEC) zone boundaries with percent protected, number of overlapping protected areas and other attributes added as a result of geoprocessing in the Protected Area System Overview (PASO) application. Protected area and park representation by BEC zone provides a zonal ecosystem context for natural resource planning processes such as; management plans, land use zoning, environmental risk assessment, landscape analysis, habitat supply, and management of high priority species. For important warnings about using this data for spatial analysis see the Data Quality section of the metadata

This geospatial data depicts preliminary offshore wind licencing areas recommended by the Committee for the Regional Assessment of Offshore Wind Development in Newfoundland and Labrador (Committee). These areas were identified as an interim product during the Regional Assessment process. The Committee is tasked to complete its Regional Assessment Report by January 2025. As part of the terms of amended agreement set out by the Governments of Canada and Newfoundland and Labrador, the Committee submitted an interim report to Ministers on March 22, 2024. This report included a preliminary map of recommended areas for offshore wind. Based on work completed to date, the Committee has found these areas are where offshore wind development is most likely feasible and will have the least impact within offshore Newfoundland and Labrador. These areas are preliminary and will be refined throughout the remainder of the Regional Assessment. Through the Regional Assessment process, the Committee is providing federal and provincial Ministers with information, knowledge, and analysis regarding future offshore wind development. Their work is intended to inform and improve future planning, licencing, and impact assessment processes. Any offshore wind areas identified by the Committee do not reflect official offshore wind licencing areas. The Committee is providing these areas to Ministers for their consideration, as the offshore wind regulatory process is being established.

Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Act (YESAA) Assessment District boundaries. This data set was created at a scale of 1:250,000 from metes and bounds provided in the "MINISTERIAL ORDER ESTABLISHING ASSESSMENT DISTRICT BOUNDARIES PURSUANT TO SECTION 20(1) OF THE YUKON ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT ACT".Distributed from [GeoYukon](https://yukon.ca/geoyukon) by the [Government of Yukon](https://yukon.ca/maps) . Discover more digital map data and interactive maps from Yukon's digital map data collection.For more information: [geomatics.help@yukon.ca](mailto:geomatics.help@yukon.ca)