Ecoterritory Polygons for Montreal Agglomeration Priority Conservation

10 priority ecoterritory sectors, each over 15 hectares, are defined for the protection and enhancement of natural spaces in Montreal. The City of Montreal established these areas through its 2004 Policy for the Protection and Development of Natural Environments, with legal recognition in the Urban Agglomeration Decree. Data includes polygon boundaries available in multiple geospatial formats.

Use Cases

• Analyze the spatial distribution and contiguity of the 10 ecoterritory polygons to assess urban green network connectivity.
• Overlay ecoterritory polygons with land-use data to identify conflicts between protected natural areas and urbanized zones.
• Use polygon boundaries to calculate the total area of priority conservation zones exceeding the 15-hectare minimum threshold.
• Integrate ecoterritory polygons with planning regulations to model development constraints under the Urban Agglomeration Decree.

Strengths

• Data is derived from official municipal policy (2004) and has legal standing via the Urban Agglomeration Decree.
• Defines 10 distinct, large-scale conservation sectors, each over 15 hectares in size.
• Provided in multiple standard geospatial formats (KML, GEOJSON, SHP) for interoperability.

Limitations

• The dataset contains only boundary polygons without attribute columns describing internal land cover, ownership, or ecological status.
• Updates to the ecoterritories may not be reflected in the associated Urban and Development Plan until a future revision.
• Sample data and row counts for geographic features are unavailable, limiting pre-download assessment of detail.

Provenance

Source

Government and Municipalities of Québec

Collection Method

Defined by municipal policy and legal decree; polygons delimited by the City of Montreal.

Time Range

Policy established in 2004; dataset reflects updates following regulatory amendments.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03 25, indicating recent maintenance.

Geography

Spatial coverage is the Montreal agglomeration.