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Ontario Provincial Landcover Database

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Provider

Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources

The Ontario Land Cover Data base is the first land cover classification in Canada to be completed for an entire province wholly from satellite remote sensing data. The database was produced in nine segments (termed tiles) under three programs of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (OMNR) between 1991 and 1998. The Land Cover data was derived from digital, multispectral Landsat Thematic Mapper data. Revised Data (Provincial Land Cover Data Base 2000) is available for Northern Ontario and is based on Landsat images flown between 1998 and 2002.

Land cover classes consist of vegetation types (forest, wetlands, crops, pasture) and non-vegetated surfaces (waterbodies, bedrock outcrops, settlements).

The data reflects the nature of the land surface rather than the land uses.

Satellite land cover classification identifies cover types by their spectral character. This spectral character is determined by the electromagnetic energy reflected by the vegetation and other surfaces that make up that cover type.

Wetland types are identified by the nature of vegetation cover and proportion of open water.

Agricultural land cover is distinguished by the spectral character of growing row crops, pasture, or open soil. Note that this is generalized land cover and NOT appropriate for large-scale site specific studies.

Format & Download

Data Resource Centre Geospatial Metadata Explorer (For Southern Ontario, ECO regions 6E and 7E use SOLRIS)
Note: to download geospatial data from off-campus users will first need to install CISCO IPSec VPN Access software available (a free download) from the University of Guelph CCS software distribution Web site.

Original Edition

Entire province, 28 land cover classes

  • Grid files (.exe file – 308mb)
    A seamless provincial land cover file.
  • TIFF files (Download site)
    Includes 3 tiff files that together provide provincial coverage.

    PLC_tiff-zone 16, PLC_tiff2-zone 15,18 PLC_tiff3-zone 17

  • Land Cover Tools Document (PDF – 278kb)
  • Landcover Readme (PDF – 31kb)

Revised Edition 2000

Northern Ontario only, 27 land cover types.

  • PLC_2000(Download site)
    The .zip files contain 4 tiff images — for UTM zones 15, 16, 17 and 18. Shape files are included to show the date of the Landsat image for regions within the UTM zone.

Projections

GRID: Lambert Conformal Conic

TIFF images:

  • PLC_Tiff (Zone 16) Datum NAD83 Zone 16N
  • PLC_tiff_2 (Zone 15) (Zone 18) Datum NAD83 UTM Zone 15N and Zone 18N
  • PLC_Tiff_3 (Zone 17) Datum Nad83 UTM Zone 17N

Units: meters

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Data Access

Contact

519–824–4120 ext. 56417

Visit

The DRC is located behind the Research Help desk in the McLaughlin Library.

Check DRC help hours

Last updated November 3rd, 2009 by D.B. (details)