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Land Cover (Ontario Provincial Land Cover Altered for fine scale use)
Land Cover (Ontario Provincial Land Cover Altered for fine scale use)
The land cover classes consist of vegetation types (such as forest, wetlands, and agricultural crops or pasture) and categories of non-vegetated surface (such as waterbodies, bedrock outcrops, or settlements). The data reflects the nature of the land surface rather than the land use.For example, provincial parks are not discriminated as areas of recreational land use, but are mapped as part of the provincial mosaic of waterbodies, forest types, wetlands, and other cover classes. Descriptions are below:
  1. WATER:All waterbodies, both deep/clear and shallow/sedimented.
  2. COASTAL MUDFLATS:Unvegetated coastal areas of the Hudson Bay-James Bay Lowlands, partly submerged at high tide.
  3. COASTAL MARSH: Coastal marshes of the Hudson Bay-James Bay Lowland lying inland of the Coastal Mudflats, including intertidal and supertidal marshes (Marsh classes and subject to only exceptionally high tides)
  4. FRESHWATER COASTAL MARSH/ INLAND MARSH:Coastal marshes of the Hudson Bay-James Bay Lowland lying beyond the area of saltwater influence; marshes occurring along lakeshores; Southern Ontario inland marshes characterized by a range of moisture conditions: seasonal marshes, flooded in spring but often dry by fall, that may appear flooded more deeply than other types of inland marsh; cattail marshes that appear generally drier than the flooded seasonal marshes; and grassy meadow marshes which appear generally drier than either the seasonal marshes or cattail marshes.
  5. SWAMP:Hardwood swamps of Southern Ontario occurring along rivers and in old lake beds and other low-lying areas; includes thicket swamps in Northern Ontario; Swamps with dense conifer tree or shrub cover occurring mainly in Southern Ontario.
  6. FEN/BOG:Non-treed grassy fens; fens with open pools occurring most extensively in the Hudson Bay-James Bay Lowlands; bogs of the Hudson Bay-James Bay Lowland that have a high proportion of open water surface (termed "string bogs"); Fens with dense shrub cover and tamarack tree cover occurring generally in the province but most extensively in the Hudson Bay-James Bay Lowlands; Non-treed bog that may have a partial cover of stunted trees occurring generally in the province but most extensively in the Hudson Bay-James Bay Lowlands, where it also includes lichen-rich peat plateau; Bog with a low to high density of tree cover. There is expected to be some degree of overlap between densely treed bog and sparse conifer forest in more northerly parts of the province and especially in the Hudson Bay-James Bay Lowlands.
  7. TUNDRA HEATH:Areas of dense ericaceous vegetation occurring on better-drained areas only in the Hudson Bay coastal zone.
  8. DENSE FOREST:Largely continuous forest canopy (Greater than 60%); includes dense conifer swamp in the Hudson Bay-James Bay Lowlands.
  9. PLANTATION FOREST:Tree plantations occurring in evenly spaced rows, mainly in Southern Ontario. This class does not include artificially regenerated cutovers or burns in Northern Ontario.
  10. SPARSE FOREST:Patchy or sparse forest canopy (i.e. approximately 30 to 60 percent canopy closure).
  11. CUTOVERS and CLEARINGS: Forest clear-cuts or vegetation clearing composed of early successional or understory species
  12. BURNS:Area composed of mostly dead forest or vegetation due to a burn, natural or anthropogenic.
  13. FOREST REGENERATION: Densely planted or naturally growing trees less than 5 meters in height.
  14. MINE TAILINGS AND BEDROCK OUTCROPS: Clearings for mining activity scattered in all parts of the province; aggregate quarries occurring mainly in Southern Ontario; bedrock outcrops.
  15. SETTLEMENT AND DEVELOPED LAND: Clearings for human settlement, economic activity, and transportation, not including green space
  16. MAINTAINED WOODLAND: Highly landscaped woodlands. Characterized by > 10% tree (< 5 meters) cover
  17. MAINTAINED GRASSLAND: Highly landscaped grassland, shrubs, and gardens with less than 10% tree cover (trees > 5 meters)
  18. PASTURE AND ABANDONED FIELDS: Grassland recently disturbed by animal and anthropogenic forces.
  19. CROPLAND: Row crops mapped in Southern Ontario; hay or open soil in areas of agricultural land use.
  20. ALVAR:Homogeneous areas of dry grassland growing on thin soils over a limestone substrate, mapped only where they occur in clusters in the central and eastern portions of Southern Ontario.
  21. THICKET: Largely deciduous shrub cover and alder thicket swamps.
  22. NATURAL GRASSLAND/MEADOW/PRAIRIE: Open grassland/meadow mostly undisturbed by recent animal and anthropogenic activity.
  23. BARE SAND, GRAVEL, STONE: Bare soil due to anthropogenic or natural forces. Aggregate Pits, heavy erosion etc.
  24. UNCLASSIFIED:Small local areas where no classification data could be generated because clouds and their shadows obscured the land surface on the satellite image data.
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