Canadian Land Cover Classification by Hydrogeographic Region for 2020

2020 land cover classification data for Canada, aggregated by sub-drainage area, major drainage area, and drainage region. It details the area of land cover classes including built-up surfaces, cropland, treed areas, wetlands, and permanent snow and ice. The dataset is produced by Statistics Canada.

Use Cases

• Analyze the proportion of cropland versus treed area within major drainage areas to assess agricultural pressure.
• Model the relationship between wetland (non-treed) coverage and sub-drainage area characteristics for conservation planning.
• Track changes in built-up and artificial surface area over time by joining this 2020 snapshot with other temporal data.
• Assess the distribution of permanent snow and ice cover across different drainage regions for climate impact studies.

Strengths

• Provides a standardized 2020 snapshot of land cover for all of Canada.
• Categorizes data by three nested hydrogeographic levels: drainage region, major drainage area, and sub-drainage area.
• Includes 10 distinct land cover classes, from built-up areas to permanent ice.

Limitations

• Contains only a single year (2020) of data, limiting temporal trend analysis.
• The specific row count and granularity of the sub-drainage areas are unknown.
• Land cover classification is synthetic, derived from remote sensing and models, not direct ground survey.

Provenance

Source

Statistics Canada.

Collection Method

Synthetic data derived from remote sensing and geospatial modeling.

Time Range

2020.

Freshness

Last updated on the platform in February 2026, but the data itself is for the year 2020.

Geography

Canada, aggregated by hydrogeographic regions (drainage areas).