Tidal Marsh Vegetation Zones in Quebec's Coastal St. Lawrence Region

Quebec's estuarine and maritime coastal zones contain mapped polygons representing semi-vegetated (25-75%) and vegetated (75-100%) tidal marshes where marsh vegetation is dominant. The data was created by the University of Quebec at Rimouski and Fisheries and Oceans Canada for oil spill preparedness, primarily using photo-interpretation of aerial imagery from 2015-2020. Validation was performed using field stations visited between 2018 and 2020.

Use Cases

• Map semi-vegetated and vegetated marsh zones for coastal resilience planning and oil spill response modeling.
• Analyze the distribution of dominant marsh vegetation types across Quebec's St. Lawrence coastline.
• Validate photo-interpreted marsh boundaries using the 2018-2020 field station data points for accuracy assessment.
• Integrate coastal ecosystem polygon data with other geospatial layers for environmental impact studies.

Strengths

• Data creation involved validation using field stations visited between 2018 and 2020, providing ground-truthing.
• Derived from photo-interpretation of high-resolution RVBI aerial photos acquired from 2015 to 2020.
• Produced through a joint project by a university research laboratory and a federal government department.

Limitations

• The study area excludes most of the Lower North Shore, Anticosti Island, and other unspecified sectors, creating geographic gaps.
• Specific technical details like polygon count, spatial resolution, or attribute column definitions are not provided in the input.
• The dataset's primary focus is on marsh vegetation zones, potentially omitting other coastal ecosystem types.

Provenance

Source

Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the University of Quebec at Rimouski (UQAR).

Collection Method

Photo-interpretation of aerial photos (2015-2020) and helicopter oblique photos (2017), validated with field stations (2018-2020).

Time Range

Primary source imagery from 2015-2020; field validation 2018-2020.

Freshness

Last updated March 2026, indicating recent maintenance.

Geography

Estuarine and maritime coasts of Quebec, excluding parts of the Lower North Shore and Anticosti Island, but including specific villages and islands like Île d'Orléans.