Calgary Land Cover Classification for Habitat and Connectivity Modeling

Citywide Land Cover is a composite geospatial layer created by the City of Calgary from multiple municipal data sources. It was compiled into a single seamless dataset in 2015, with manual verification against 2014 aerial photography. The layer supports city analyses including park health assessment and wildlife connectivity modeling.

Use Cases

• Model wildlife movement resistance across the city using the 'Resist' column values assigned to different land cover types.
• Assess natural area park health by analyzing the distribution of 'LC_CAT' (Land Cover Category) classes within park boundaries.
• Calculate metrics of open space contiguity by processing the 'Shape_Area' and spatial geometry ('the_geom') of permeable land cover patches.
• Compare land cover characteristics across city quadrants using the 'Quadrant' and 'LdScMetric' or 'PkScMetric' columns.

Strengths

• Dataset was manually verified against 2014 aerial photography at a minimum scale of 1:4000.
• City parks were reviewed at a higher 1:1000 resolution for greater accuracy.
• Compiled from multiple City of Calgary data sources into a single seamless layer.

Limitations

• Underlying data sources and compilation date from 2015, which may not reflect recent land cover changes.
• Sample data and total row count are unavailable, making initial assessment of data volume difficult.

Provenance

Source

City of Calgary (data.calgary.ca), compiled from multiple municipal data sources.

Collection Method

Composite layer created from multiple city datasets, with manual resolution of overlaps and verification against aerial photos.

Time Range

Compilation year is 2015, with verification against 2014 aerial photography.

Freshness

Metadata was last updated on 2026-03-11, but the core land cover data is from a 2015 compilation.

Geography

City of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.