This dataset contains spatial indices of environmental and social sensitivities for natural resources development for all of Canada. Both model result rasters (index maps) and input factors (weighted indices) are included along with point file locations of mineral, forestry, renewable energy, and future major projects.

The Planning for an Environmental Response (PIER) initiative falls under the umbrella of the Government of Canada’s Oceans Protection Plan (OPP), whose goal is preserving marine ecosystems vulnerable to increased transportation and the development of the marine industry. The PIERs’ main mandate is to acquire and update biological sensitivity data under its jurisdiction for preparation and response purposes in the event of an oil spill.This dataset contains all observations of marine organisms noted during the analysis of 2959 underwater images sampled over a large extent of the coastal zone (≤10 m) of the Estuary and the Gulf of St. Lawrence (Quebec region). The dataset includes 21 490 occurrences of 150 taxa and informal categories including macroalgae, invertebrates and fish. Underwater images were collected between 2017 and 2021 according to a directed sampling protocol whose primary goal was to map large seaweed and eelgrass beds. Images were normally recorded as videos using a GoPro Hero camera installed on a pole and placed near the seabed from a small boat. The collected data served primarily as ground-truth data to validate coasting zone mapping based on aerial photographs within the framework of the PIER's initiative.The two files provided (DarwinCore format) are complementary and are linked by the "eventID" key. The "event_information" file includes generic event information, including date and location. The "taxon_occurrence" file includes the original identifiers of the observed organisms (verbatimIdentification field), identification remarks and their taxonomy.Taxonomic names were verified on the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) to match recognized standards. The WoRMS match has been put in the scientificNameID field in the occurrence file. Data quality control was performed using the R packages obistools and worrms. All sampling locations were plotted on a map to perform a visual check confirming that the latitude and longitude coordinates were within the described sampling area.A visual dictionary was developed as an identification aid and accompanies this dataset (unilingual french only, the English version will be published soon). More data, including a visibility index, estimated macroalgae and eelgrass cover, substrate type and dominant macroalgae and animals were recorded but not included in this dataset. These data may be made available upon request.CreditsProvencher-Nolet, L., Paquette, L., Pitre, L.D., Grégoire, B. and Desjardins, C. 2024. Cartographie des macrophytes estuariens et marins du Québec. Rapp. Tech. Can. Sci. halieut. Aquat. 3617 : v + 99 p.Grégoire, B., Pitre, L.D., Provencher-Nolet, L., Paquette, L. and Desjardins, C. 2024. Distribution d’organismes marins de la zone côtière peu profonde du Québec recensés par imagerie sous-marine de 2017 à 2021. Rapp. tech. can. sci. halieut. aquat. 3616 : v + 78 p.

**PLEASE NOTE:** The Environmental Monitoring System will be replaced by the EnMoDS system on March 5th, 2026. The EMS results objects will not contain new data after Feb 26th, 2026. For recent data please refer to [EnMoDS spatial locations and location groups](https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/f60fa4b5-e3d0-44ad-b5d8-778d29764e34). Environmental Monitoring Stations (EMS) spatial points coverage for the Province by LOCATION TYPES. The following spatial layers reference this as a data source: 1. Environmental Monitoring - All Stations 2. Environmental Monitoring Stations - Air Monitoring (Ambient Air Site) 3. Environmental Monitoring Stations - Air Monitoring (Air Permit) 4. Environmental Monitoring Stations - Water Sites (Water Monitoring) 5. Environmental Monitoring Stations - Water Sites (Water Permits) 6. Environmental Monitoring Stations - Water Sites (Well) 7. Environmental Monitoring Stations - Water Sites (Observation Well) 8. Environmental Monitoring Stations - Water Sites (Spring)

Ecologically and Biologically Significant Areas (EBSAs) are areas within Canada's oceans that have been identified through formal scientific assessments as having special biological or ecological significance when compared with the surrounding marine ecosystem.Failure to define an area as an EBSA does not mean that it is unimportant ecologically. All areas serve ecological functions to some extent and require sustainable management. Rather, areas identified as EBSAs should be viewed as the most important areas where, with existing knowledge, regulators and marine users should be particularly risk averse to ensure ecosystems remain healthy and productive.Why are EBSAs identified?EBSA information is used to inform marine planning, including environmental assessment and the siting of marine-based activities, by:- Informing and guiding project-specific or regional environmental assessments;- Informing and guiding industries and regulators in their planning and operations, for example: EBSAs have been acknowledged and referred to (often as "Special Areas" or "Potentially Sensitive Areas") in oil and gas related assessments;- EBSA information has been provided to proponents of submarine cable projects to be used for route planning purposes;- Informing and guiding Integrated Oceans Management (IOM) process within five Large Ocean Management Areas (LOMAs) and twelve marine bioregions;- Serving as a basis for the identification of Areas of Interest (AOIs) and of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) (individually and in the context of planning bioregional networks of MPAs).How are EBSAs identified?The process used to identify EBSAs is generally comprised of two phases. The first phase involves compiling scientific data and knowledge of a marine area's ecosystems - notably fish species, marine mammals, sea birds, marine flora, marine productivity, physical and chemical conditions and geology. "Knowledge" includes experiential knowledge of long-time uses of the areas. In some cases (e.g., in the Arctic), substantial efforts are taken to collect traditional knowledge on ecosystems and environmental conditions from community members, fish harvests, hunters and individuals whose knowledge of the study area complement often helps fill scientific data gaps.In the second phase, the available information for a marine area (e.g. a bioregion) is assessed against five nationally-established science-based criteria including:- Uniqueness: How distinct is the ecosystem of an area compared to surrounding ones?- Aggregation: Whether or not species populate or convene to the study area?- Fitness consequence: How critical the area is to the life history of the species that use it (e.g. is it a spawning or feeding ground)?- Naturalness: How pristine or disturbed by human activities is the study area?- Resilience: What is the ability of the ecosystem to bounce back if it is disturbed?Progress to date and next stepsEBSAs have been identified for large portions of Canada's Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as well as most of the Arctic oceans. EBSAs will continue to be identified in priority areas as resources become available to carry out the process. The boundaries or locations of existing EBSAs may be modified to reflect both new knowledge and changing environmental conditions.

This map data displays environmentally impacted sites in Saskatchewan with location, confirmed substance and current status.The Ministry of Environment is responsible for regulating environmentally impacted sites in Saskatchewan to protect the environment and the public.  An environmentally impacted site is an area of land or water that contains a substance that may cause or is causing an adverse effect.An adverse effect is an impairment of or damage to the environment or harm to human health caused by any chemical, physical or biological alterations or any combination of them.Please note: information may take up to 30 days to be updated and is subject to change at any time.For further information, please contact the Ministry of Environment Inquiry Centre (Toll Free): 800-567-4224, centre.inquiry@gov.sk.ca or visit the environmentally impacted sites page on Saskatchewan.ca. Terms and definitionsObject ID: An internal GeoHub record ID number. This number can be ignored.  Case ID: The Case ID is the ministry’s file number – a unique identifier. It is NOT the date the site became impacted.  Status – The stages of management for an environmentally impacted site.   Notification: The ministry has received notification that pollutants have been discovered at the site.  The concentration of this pollutant exceeds the threshold outlined in the Saskatchewan Environmental Code and must be reported. The pollutants may cause an adverse effect to the environment or human health. The ministry has been made aware of this and has determined that the site is an environmentally impacted site. Assessment: The site is currently undergoing, or has recently completed, analysis to determine the cause, nature or extent of potential or existing adverse effect (e.g. a Phase 2 Environmental Site Assessment). Corrective Action Plan: The site is currently undergoing, or has recently completed, activity that aims to prevent, minimize, mitigate, remedy or reclaim adverse effects (e.g. removal of impacts by excavation). Closure: This is a historical status term for environmentally impacted sites that is no longer used. The Notice of Site Condition status replaces the former status of Closure. It indicates that corrective actions have been completed at the site, endpoints have been achieved and an updated environmental status of the site has been provided to the ministry. However, no application has been made for a Notice of Site Condition certificate.  Notice of Site Condition: The ministry is satisfied that an acceptable risk level exists for the area of the site addressed in the corrective action plan. Confirmed substance: The substances of concern at the site. Examples that may cause an adverse effect are petroleum hydrocarbons, toxic metals, air pollutants, acids and solvents.

**PLEASE NOTE:** The Environmental Monitoring System will be replaced by the EnMoDS system on March 5th, 2026. The EMS results objects will not contain new data after Feb 26th, 2026. For recent data please refer to [EnMoDS spatial locations and location groups](https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/f60fa4b5-e3d0-44ad-b5d8-778d29764e34). Environmental monitoring stations (EMS) points coverage for the Province by MONITORING LOCATION GROUPS.

The layer provides information on suspended particulate matter (SPM) concentrations by area. There is a natural interaction phenomenon between hydrocarbons and SPM, that creates hydrocarbon-SPM aggregates. The SPM in the water column, hence has an effect on hydrocarbon capacity to sink to the bottom in aggregate form (Gong et collab., 2014 ; Fitzpatrick et collab., 2015, cited in Centre d'expertise en analyse environnementale du Québec, 2015). Additional InformationThe suspended particulate matter data for this layer are derived from multiple sources given the need to cover the St. Lawrence portion from Montreal to Anticosti. The layer has been cut into 6 different zones. Denis Lefaivre, a researcher at Maurice-Lamontagne Institute, has provided the coordinates of the points allowing the delimitation of areas. The values in each zone are derived from different studies carried out at different times. The references are cited below for each of the polygons from West to East, as well as for the summary:1- Department of Sustainable Development, Environment and Climate Change and Environment and Climate Change Canada, 2016. Recommendations for Suspended Matter Management (ESM) during dredging activities. Quebec. 64 pages and appendices. http://planstlaurent.qc.ca/fileadmin/publications/diverses/Registre_de_dragage/Recommandations_dragage.pdf2- D'Anglejan, B. 1990. Recent Sediments and Sediment Transport Process in the St. Lawrence Estuary. In Oceanography of a Large-Scale Estuarine System: The St. Lawrence, edited by M. I. El-Sabh and N. Silverberg. New York: Springer-Verlag, 109-153.3- Silverberg, N., and B. Sundby. 1979. Observations in the maximum turbidity of the St. Lawrence estuary. Can. J. Earth Sci. 16: 939-950.4- Michel Lebeuf, 2016.Unpublished personal data.Collected between 2015-2016 for research purposes.5- Sundby, B. 1974. Distribution and Transport of Suspended Particulate Matter in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences11 (11): 1517-1533.6- Gong, Y., X. Zhao, Z. Cai, S. E. O'Reilly, X. Hao and D. Zhao. 2014. A review of oil, dispersedoil and sediment interactions in the aquatic environment: Influence on the fate, transportand remediation of oil spills. Marine Pollution Bulletin, vol. 79: 1-2, p.16-33. 7- Fitzpatrick, F.A., M.C., Boufadel, R., Johnson, K., Lee, T.P., Graan, A.C., Bejarano, Z.,Zhu, D., Waterman, D.M., Capone, E., Hayter, S.K., Hamilton, T., Deffer, M.H.,Garcia, et J.S., Hassan. 2015. Oil-particle interactions and submergence from crudeoil spills in marine and freshwater environments – Review of the science and futurescience needs. U.S. Geological Survey Open-file report 2015-2016, 33 p.8- Centre d'expertise en analyse environnementale du Québec,2015.Hydrocarbures pétroliers : caractéristiques, devenir et criminalistique environnementale –Études GENV222 et GENV23, Évaluation environnementale stratégique globale sur leshydrocarbures. Ministère du Développement durable, de l’Environnement et de la Lutte contreles changements climatiques, 41 p. et annexes.9- CSL – Centre Saint-Laurent, 1997. Le Saint-Laurent : dynamique et contamination des sédiments, Montréal, Environnement Canada – Région du Québec, Conservation de l’environnement, 127 p. (coll. BILAN Saint-Laurent). [Rapport thématique sur l’état du Saint-Laurent].

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)

The objective of the Independent Environmental Monitoring Program (IEMP) is to build Indigenous and public trust in the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission's (CNSC) regulation of the nuclear industry, via an independent, technical and accessible environmental sampling program around nuclear facilities, while using CNSC resources effectively and efficiently. For more information: www.Nuclearsafety.gc.ca/IEMP

The Coastal Infrastructure Vulnerability Index (CIVI) was jointly developed by DFO Science Branch, Small Craft Harbours (SCH) Program and the Economic Analysis and Statistics Directorate. The CIVI was designed with the intent of developing a climate change adaptation tool that would support management decisions regarding the long-term infrastructure planning for SCH sites.The CIVI provides a numerical indication of the relative vulnerability of small craft harbour sites to the effects of climate change and was designed with three component sub-indices: Environmental Exposure (natural forces), Infrastructure, and Socio-economic. The spatial component for the coastline was derived from the CanVec 1:50,000 hydrographic layer (https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/9d96e8c9-22fe-4ad2-b5e8-94a6991b744b).This layer combines the 1:50,000 CanVec coastline of Canada with the following CIVI environmental exposure variables:- projected sea level rise (for the decades 2030, 2040,...2100) in meters- wave height (metres) and wind speed (metres/second)- change in sea ice coverage in Atlantic Canada from the 1970s to the 2000sSea level change:Data for relative sea level change (SLC) were derived from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report (IPCC 2014, AR5). The projected relative sea level change under the high emission scenario (RCP8.5) was calculated for all years between 2006 and 2100. Sea level change for the years 2030, 2040, 2050, 2060, 2070, 2080, 2090, and 2100 were used.Wind Speed and Wave HeightModelled hindcasts of yearly maximum wind speed (1990 - 2012) and wave height (1990- 2014) were used. This dataset was generated from IFREMER wave hindcasts using the WAVEWATCH III model with wind data from NCEP Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) (Saha et al. 2010). Two high resolution (10 minute) grids of Atlantic and Pacific maximum modeled wind speeds and maximum significant wave height were used for southern Canadian coastal areas while a coarser (30 minute) worldwide grid was used for the Arctic areas. From these datasets the mean annual maximum wind speed over 23 years and the mean maximum significant wave height over 25 years were calculated.Change in sea ice coverage:Sea ice data from the Canadian Ice Service were acquired for Atlantic and Arctic Canada, representing percent ice coverage for each week over four decades (1970s, 1980s, 1990, 2000s). For each decade a single dataset was calculated to represent the sum of all weeks with ice coverage in excess of 50%, with a maximum possible score of 52 weeks for each decade. To measure change in ice duration, the summary mapsheet from the 2000s was subtracted from the 1970s summary mapsheet. The final dataset represents the change between the 1970s and 2000s in the number of weeks with ice concentrations greater than 50%. A positive number indicates a reduction in weeks of ice coverage, a negative number an increase in ice coverage.The data for individual small craft harbours included here contains predicted sea level change for the decades between 2030 and 2100, wave height, windspeed, change in sea ice coverage, population, and the final environmental exposure sub-index value (ESI). The population for each harbour is derived from the 2016 Census of Canada data for the Census subdivision (CSD) geographic unit.Reference:Relative sea-level projections for Canada based on the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report and the NAD83v70VG national crustal velocity modelhttps://doi.org/10.4095/327878 IPCC, 2014. Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Field, C.B., V.R. Barros, D.J. Dokken, K.J. Mach, M.D. Mastrandrea, T.E. Bilir, M. Chatterjee, K.L. Ebi, Y.O. Estrada, R.C. Genova, B. Girma, E.S. Kissel, A.N. Levy, S. MacCracken, P.R. Mastrandrea, and L.L. White (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 1132 pp.Cite this data as: Greenan B. and Greyson P. Coastal Environmental Exposure Layer. Published March 2022. Ocean Ecosystem Science Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Dartmouth, N.S.