Nova Scotia Hydrographic Network: Water Features from Topographic Database

Nova Scotia's hydrographic network is updated and maintained from aerial photography. Lakes, rivers, islands, and other features are networked into a seamless relational database with toponyms for named features. The data is provided by data.novascotia.ca and was last updated in May 2026.

Use Cases

• Calculate water body area and perimeter using SHAPE_AREA and SHAPE_LEN for hydrological modeling.
• Classify water feature types (e.g., lake vs. river) using FEAT_CODE and FEAT_DESC for land cover analysis.
• Map the 3D elevation of water features using ZVALUE for terrain and flood modeling.
• Perform spatial joins and analysis on water polygons using the_geom for proximity studies.

Strengths

• Includes toponyms (place names) for named hydrographic features in the attribute table.
• Features are networked into a seamless relational database, suggesting topological consistency.
• Data is updated and maintained from aerial photography, a standard source for topographic mapping.

Limitations

• Row count and total data size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

data.novascotia.ca

Collection Method

Updated and maintained from aerial photography.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-05 11:11:06; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Nova Scotia, Canada