Conservation Interest Areas in the St. Lawrence Lowlands

The Atlas of Territories of Conservation Interest in the St. Lawrence Lowlands identifies sites with pressing conservation needs. It maps conservation targets including forest environments, wetlands, open environments, and aquatic environments, plus fine-filter elements like spawning grounds and bird colonies. The dataset was produced under the St. Lawrence Action Plan by the Government and Municipalities of Québec.

Use Cases

• Analyze spatial distribution of conservation value for habitat plots like forest environments and wetlands using GIS.
• Identify priority sites for conservation actions based on fine-filter elements such as spawning grounds and bird colonies.
• Assess habitat representation against the 20% threshold target for conservation targets including aquatic environments and alvars.
• Integrate land use mapping data for the St. Lawrence Lowlands to contextualize conservation interest areas.

Strengths

• Includes both coarse-filter conservation targets (e.g., forest, wetland, aquatic environments) and fine-filter elements (e.g., spawning grounds, alvars).
• Supported by a user guide, methodological report, and detailed land use mapping for the St. Lawrence Lowlands.
• Geospatial data available in multiple formats including FGDB/GDB and GPKG for GIS analysis.

Limitations

• Specific quantitative metrics like row count, column count, and total area covered are not provided in the input.
• Relies on an automated translation for its metadata, which may introduce terminology inconsistencies.

Provenance

Source

Government and Municipalities of Québec

Collection Method

Produced as part of the St. Lawrence Action Plan, using detailed land use mapping as essential base data.

Time Range

null

Freshness

Last updated March 2026.

Geography

St. Lawrence Lowlands, Québec, Canada