Wave Exposure Indices for Newfoundland and Labrador Shelves Bioregion

Approximately 1,000,000 geospatial points at a 250-meter resolution provide relative exposure index, unweighted fetch, and effective fetch data for the coastal zone. The dataset was produced by Fisheries and Oceans Canada using a 5-kilometer coastal buffer and GIS analysis. It supports the study of wave energy and coastal processes.

Use Cases

• Model coastal erosion or habitat suitability using the relative exposure index (REI) values across 1 million points.
• Analyze spatial patterns of wave energy by mapping the unweighted fetch and effective fetch indices.
• Calibrate hydrodynamic models with fetch-based indices like sum and minimum fetch calculated for the 5km coastal buffer.

Strengths

• Approximately 1,000,000 data points provide high spatial density for analysis.
• Data is derived from multiple authoritative land boundary sources, including Natural Resources Canada at 1:50,000 scale.
• Multiple output formats (ESRI REST, CSV, TIFF) offer flexibility for different GIS and analytical workflows.

Limitations

• The exact number of data rows and columns is unspecified, complicating precise data volume assessment.
• Land boundary data for some regions (Saint Pierre and Miquelon, New England states) has an unknown production scale, introducing potential source inconsistency.
• The analysis is limited to a 5-kilometer coastal buffer, excluding offshore and deeper inland areas.

Provenance

Source

Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Collection Method

Calculated from land boundary files using GIS tools (ArcGIS Pro v. 2.7.2) on a 250m fishnet grid within a 5km coastal buffer.

Freshness

Last updated March 24, 2026.

Geography

Coastal zone of the Newfoundland and Labrador Shelves bioregion, Canada.