Land Cover Classification Map of Alberta Cold Lake Oil Sands Region

13 land-use and land-cover classes are mapped across the Cold Lake oil sands area, derived from 2013 Landsat satellite imagery. The dataset was created by the Government of Alberta to support science-based monitoring under the Lower Athabasca Regional Plan. It covers townships 56 to 69, ranges 1 to 11, west of the 4th Meridian.

Use Cases

• Train image segmentation models to identify 'coniferous forest', 'broad leaf forest', and 'mixed forest' classes from Landsat spectral bands.
• Analyze spatial patterns of 'exposed land/cut blocks/harvested areas' and 'fire scar' to assess industrial and natural disturbance impacts.
• Monitor changes in 'water bodies' and 'transitional bare surfaces' over time by comparing this 2013 baseline with newer imagery.
• Validate regional land-use planning models by comparing classified 'developed areas' and 'agriculture areas' against ground truth data.

Strengths

• Contains 13 distinct land cover classes, including specific industrial and natural categories.
• Geographically scoped to a defined region of interest covering multiple townships and ranges in Alberta.

Limitations

• Data is from a single year (2013), limiting temporal analysis without more recent classifications.
• The 'unclassified' class (0) may represent areas of poor model confidence or missing data.

Provenance

Source

Government of Alberta.

Collection Method

Derived from 2013 Landsat satellite imagery.

Time Range

2013

Freshness

The underlying source imagery is from 2013, though metadata was updated in 2026.

Geography

Cold Lake oil sands area, Alberta, Canada (Townships 56-69, Ranges 1-11, W4M).