Native Cover Indicator for Alberta - (HTML) (English)

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Publisher-reported update

2026-04-17

Alberta Environment and Protected Areas and the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI) jointly developed a Native Cover indicator for the province of Alberta. Native cover is defined as an area that is free of visible anthropogenic alteration (human footprint). There are two types of native cover: aquatic and wetland native cover (AWNC) and terrestrial native cover (TNC). AWNC represents the amount of aquatic habitat, including bogs, fens, swamps, marshes, open water, and riparian areas that are free of visible human footprint. while TNC represents the amount of upland (non-aquatic) habitat free of visible human footprint. AWNC and TNC conditions were calculated for all Hydrological Unit Code 8 (HUC 8) watersheds in Alberta for 2010, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 using four datasets: the Wetland Inventory and Human Footprint Inventories created and maintained by the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute. and the Lotic Riparian – Digital Elevation Model (DEM) Derived dataset and the hierarchical watershed boundaries created and maintained by the Government of Alberta. The calculations of AWNC and TNC account for recovery of forest harvest areas.

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