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Wetland Inventory Mapping - Enhanced Wetland Classification

DUC is leading the effort to provide detailed and accurate wetland maps for large areas of the western boreal forest. To date, nearly 200 million acres (80 million hectares) of wetlands have been mapped using our remote sensing standards throughout the boreal in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It’s anticipated that another 300 million acres (120 million hectares) will be mapped in the coming years in the Northwest Territories, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

The Enhanced Wetland Classification inventory is based on satellite imagery, field data and supplementary information collected for each project area. Our classification model is completed based on spectral signatures that use object-based supervised classification methods. The final product is a 30-metre resolution raster dataset that highlights the 19 boreal plains wetland classes along with additional land cover classes, like uplands and anthropogenic. For processing specifics, please see our EWC Field Guide.

The Enhanced Wetland Classification effort is a collaboration with several international, national, provincial and territorial agencies, industries and associations.

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Enhanced Wetland Classification Inferred Products

While the Enhanced Wetland Classification locates the wetland types that exist, our inferred products focus on the underlying factors forming those wetlands.

Wetlands develop in response to numerous variables such as geology, hydrology and climate. These variables dictate wetland vegetation, species diversity and underlying factors. DUC has inferred several of these underlying factors from our Enhanced Wetland Classification including water flow characteristics, soil moisture content and relative nutrient status. The inferred products, which allow us to map these variables across the landscape, are vital to enhancing our knowledge and providing useful recommendations to conserve the boreal.

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Biodiversity Tool

The boreal is an ecologically diverse region and home to a rich collection of species. To begin understanding boreal wetland biodiversity, DUC focused on the Alberta boreal region as a starting point to assess biodiversity within each of the wetland classes in Enhanced Wetland Classification.

Each wetland type has its own unique habitat characteristics and is used by a variety of species during different life stages. Through research, we developed our biodiversity tool to rank wetlands by primary and secondary habitat use, the number of species utilizing a wetland type and the rarity of species. This tool allows for mapping of the biodiversity potential of all mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles, or specified groupings of species within each wetland type.

With a focus on wetland habitat types, this tool is the first step in providing ecosystem management solutions dealing with biodiversity.

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Carbon storage values

Carbon storage is an important ecological function of the boreal forest. The predominant boreal wetland types are peatlands (bogs and fens), which develop thick layers of moss that can be metres deep.

Peatlands can store up to 98 per cent of their total carbon below ground, but our understanding of the depth of the carbon stores is less known. We have been gathering peat depth data from published literature and collecting our own to better understand the volume of peat throughout the various types of boreal wetlands. This information will be combined with our Enhanced Wetland Classification wetland mapping products to map the estimated subsurface carbon storage values.

Learn about the Swan River Carbon Study work to develop a rapid assessment protocol for assessing carbon in wetlands, primarily forested wetlands.

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Waterfowl Models

The western boreal forest contains the greatest number of wetlands and lakes in the world and supports about 10 million ducks each spring.

Waterfowl distribution maps are useful to assess the relative potential contribution of areas to overall population size. This knowledge can help assess approaches to conservation and land use planning, locally and regionally.

DUC has mapped waterfowl in the boreal forest using wetland density as the strongest predictor of waterfowl abundance. Predictions based on wetland density were further refined by other factors including potential evapotranspiration, surficial geology, wetland and upland vegetation classes and human disturbance.