Quebec Hydrological Reference Framework (CRHQ): Aquatic Ecosystem Mapping

A cartographic tool updated on May 17, 2022, the CRHQ integrates ecological information on Quebec's aquatic ecosystems to support decision-making. It provides a hierarchical framework for mapping and characterizing ecosystems based on governing processes, including aquatic ecological units (AEUs) and data on hydro-geomorphology, hydraulics, and physico-chemistry. The dataset is provided by the Government and Municipalities of Québec under a CC-BY-4.0 license.

Use Cases

• Delineating aquatic ecological units (AEUs) based on homogeneous physical characteristics conditioning biotopes.
• Modeling hydrological processes using associated hydro-geomorphology and hydraulics data.
• Supporting environmental impact assessments with integrated physico-chemical and hydrological reference points.
• Creating decision-support maps for watershed management based on the hierarchical ecological framework.

Strengths

• Integrates multiple data layers (hydro-geomorphology, hydraulics, physico-chemistry, hydrology) into a single hierarchical framework.
• Provides aquatic ecological units (AEUs) for standardized mapping of homogeneous network segments.
• Hosted on an official government platform (open_canada) with a permissive CC-BY-4.0 license.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data freshness should be verified as the core update date (2022-05-17) precedes the platform's last updated timestamp (2026-04-22).

Provenance

Source

Government and Municipalities of Québec | Gouvernement et municipalités du Québec

Collection Method

Cartographic compilation and integration of ecological information and knowledge.

Time Range

Data reflects status as of the May 17, —2022 update.

Freshness

Last updated on the platform 2026-04-22; core data updated 2022-05-17.

Geography

Quebec, Canada.