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Alberta Wetland Mapping Standards and Guidelines: Mapping Wetlands at an Inventory Scale V1.0

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Alberta Wetland Mapping Standards and Guidelines: Mapping Wetlands at an Inventory Scale V1.0 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Prepared by Wetland Inventory Steering Comittee: Alberta Environment and Parks - Nicole Skakun, Craig Mahoney, Danielle Cobbaert, Matthew Wilson, Dan Farr, Shane Patterson, Joshua Montogmery, Faye Wyatt (formerly with AEP). Contirbutors and Stakeholder Workshop Participants, November 2019 Lyle Boychuk , Ducks Unlimited Canada Dennis Chao, Alberta Energy Regulator Laura Chasmer, University of Lethbridge Shari Clare, Fiera Biological Consulting Valery Companiystev, Alberta Environment and Parks Andy Dean, Hatfield Consultants Evan Delancy, Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute Shantel Koenig, Fiera Biological Consulting Chris Mallon, Alberta Environment and Parks Micheal Merchant, Ducks Unlimited Canada Lisa Neame, Alberta Environment and Parks Alex Onojeghuo, Solstice Environmental Management Al Richard, Ducks Unlimited Canada David Speiss, Alberta Agriculture and Forestry Louise Versteeg, Solstice Environmental Management Jinkai Zhang, Alberta Agriculture and Forestry This document may be cited as: Government of Alberta – Alberta Environment and Parks (GOA: AEP). 2020. Alberta Wetland Mapping Standards and Guidelines: Mapping Wetlands at an Inventory Scale v1.0. Edmonton, Alberta. Title: Alberta Wetland Mapping Standards and Guidelines: Mapping Wetlands at an Inventory Scale v1.0 Program Name: Copyright 2020 Government of Alberta Number: ISBN 978-1-4601-4831-0 Effective Date: This document was July 15, 2020 updated on: 2 List of Updates Update Version Section Description July 15, 2020 1.0 Version 1.0 HOW TO USE THIS DOCUMENT This standard is intended to be used by those in Alberta that have a professional interest in/or are working on wetland conservation and management, including, wetland mapping and inventory development. These were developed based on minimum standards and guidelines to promote consistency and improve data quality in wetland mapping at a provincial scale within the Prairie/Parkland and Boreal/Foothills zones of Alberta. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgement......................................................................................................... 2 ........................................................................................................................................ 3 Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... 4 List of Figures ............................................................................................................... 6 List of Tables ................................................................................................................. 7 List of Acronyms ........................................................................................................... 8 Glossary ......................................................................................................................... 9 References ..................................................................................................................... 9 Terms ............................................................................................................................. 9 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 10 1.1. Background ................................................................................................................... 10 1.2. Intent of Wetland Mapping Standards ........................................................................... 10 1.3. Key Needs ..................................................................................................................... 12 1.4. Scope of Document ....................................................................................................... 13 1.5. Target Audience ............................................................................................................ 13 2 WETLAND CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM .............................................................. 14 2.1 Wetland Definition ......................................................................................................... 14 2.2 Canadian Wetland Inventory ......................................................................................... 14 2.3 Alberta Wetland Classification System ......................................................................... 14 2.3.1 Wetland Class ........................................................................................................... 15 2.3.2 Wetland Form ........................................................................................................... 16 3 WETLAND INVENTORY STANDARDS ................................................................ 18 3.1 Prairie/Parkland Zone Wetland Mapping ...................................................................... 20 3.1.1 Classification ............................................................................................................. 20 3.1.2 Minimum Mapping Unit ............................................................................................. 21 3.1.3 Classification Accuracy ............................................................................................. 22 3.2 Boreal/Foothills Zone Wetland Mapping ....................................................................... 23 3.2.1 Classification ............................................................................................................. 23 3.2.2 Minimum Mapping Unit ............................................................................................. 24 3.2.3 Classification Accuracy ............................................................................................. 25 3.3 Boreal Transition Zone Wetland Mapping ..................................................................... 26 3.4 Methodological Guidelines for Wetland Inventory ......................................................... 27 3.4.1 Wetland Classification............................................................................................... 27 3.4.2 Accuracy Assessment............................................................................................... 29 4 DATABASE STRUCTURE .................................................................................... 31 4.1 Overview ....................................................................................................................... 31 4.2 Geodatabase ................................................................................................................. 31 4 4.2.1 Projection .................................................................................................................. 31 4.2.2 Feature Datasets ...................................................................................................... 31 4.2.3 Feature Classes ........................................................................................................ 31 4.3 Audit .............................................................................................................................. 33 4.3.1 Topologic Validation.................................................................................................. 33 4.3.2 Attribution Validation ................................................................................................. 34 5 METADATA .......................................................................................................... 34 5.1 Overview ....................................................................................................................... 34 5.2 Dataset Metadata .......................................................................................................... 34 5.3 Resource ....................................................................................................................... 34 6 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................... 36 5 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Geographic representation of the prairie/ parkland and boreal/ foothills zones within Alberta. Note, the boreal transition zone is spatially ambiguous and cannot be explicitly defined. .......................................................................................................19 Figure 2: Summary of wetland classification level and accuracy for the prairie/ parkland zone of Alberta. .........................................................................................................21 Figure 3: Summary of wetland classification level and accuracy for the boreal/ foothills zone of Alberta. .........................................................................................................24 Figure 4: Example of potential shortcomings of performing a wetland classification accuracy assessment using point locations (green triangles) only. a) illustrates the wetland as being misclassified using this method, whereas b) illustrates the wetland correctly classified as marsh. ....................................................................................30 6 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Summarised subset of geospatial data available for appropriately mapping wetlands in the prairie/ parkland and boreal/ foothills zones of Alberta. Note additional appropriate data sources may exist for wetland applications. This table provides an example of a cross-section of appropriate data sources. ......................26 7 LIST OF ACRONYMS AMWI – Alberta Merged
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