Geospatial Data: Environment & Natural Resources of Ontario

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Geology                                                                                                                      

Bedrock Geology of Ontario (MRD126)

Ontario Geological Survey, 2011

A seamless vector dataset based on the 1:250,000 scale map of bedrock geology of Ontario. It includes such themes as geological rock types, major faults, granulite areas, iron formations and dike swarms.

Format: ESRI Shapefiles

Access: Download from Geology Ontario

 

Bedrock Topography and Overburden Thickness of Southern Ontario (MRD207)

Ontario Geological Survey, 2006

The dataset contains bedrock topography and overburden thickness maps for southern Ontario and miscellaneous data points such as geotechnical boreholes, oil and gas wells, outcrops and water wells.

Format: ARC/INFO GRID, ESRI Layer, ESRI Geodatabase, ASCII text, Google Earth (.KMZ),

Access: Download from Geology Ontario

 

Surficial Geology of Southern Ontario (MRD-128-Rev)

Ontario Geological Survey, 2010

A vector dataset that shows the distribution and characteristics of surficial units across Southern Ontario, based on 1:50,000 scale Quaternary geology map. It illustrates surficial deposit types, material types, geological features, general bedrock types and outcrops.

Format: ARC/INFO Coverages, ESRI Layer

Access: Download from Geology Ontario

More Info: Metadata (OGS)

 

Quaternary Geology of Ontario (ERLIS Data Set 14)

Ontario Geological Survey, 2000 [1997]

Based on the 1:1,000,000 Surficial Geology of Ontario map, this dataset illustrates the general distribution of the various types of Quaternary sediments and the major landforms associated with them.

Tills, glaciofluvial, glaciolacustrine, glaciomarine, fluvial, lacustrine and organic deposits are represented by 30 distinct geological unites illustrating the Quaternary stratigraphy of Ontario. Also shown are landform deposits such as drumlins, moraines, eskers, sand dunes, and glacial-related escarpments.

Format: ESRI Shapefiles, AutoCAD (.dxf)

Access: Download from Geology Ontario

 

Physiography of Southern Ontario (MRD-228)

Ontario Geological Survey, 2007

The dataset consists of 4 coverages capturing information on the physical structure of southern Ontario based on 1:50,000 scale: linear features (i.e., beaches and escarpments); point features (i.e., dunes and mud flow scars); landforms (i.e., drumlins and moraines) and physiographic regions.

Format: ARC/INFO Coverages

Access: Download from Geology Ontario

 

Mineral Deposit Inventory

Ontario Geological Survey, 2011

An inventory of mineral deposits in the province of Ontario, including such information as deposit name, location, status, commodities, character/classification, geological structure, lithology, minerals and mineral alteration, geochemistry, and exploration history etc.

Format: ESRI Shapefiles

Access: Download from Geology Ontario

Soil

Soil Survey Complex (Southern Ontario Soil Survey) (Version 1.0)

The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), 2009 [1945]

A detailed geospatial soil database for Southern Ontario at a data capture map scale of 1:50,000 (may vary by individual county/region). The spatial data is available as a shapefile. There are three tables (.dbf) (soil component, soil name file, soil layer file) that can be related/linked to the shapefile. Together, these datasets describe the spatial distribution of soils and associated landscapes for nearly all agricultural areas in southern Ontario. Urbanized areas such as Toronto and Hamilton are not mapped since they are 100% urbanized. Attribute information includes soil type, area, Canada Land Inventory (CLI) ranking, stoniness, slope, drainage class, texture etc.

Format: Esri Shapefiles, DBF table

Access: Download from Scholars GeoPortal

More Info: Project Summary: Soils Ontario (OMAFRA), Detailed Soil Survey Reports

Water

Ontario Hydro Network (OHN)

Ministry of Natural Resources, 2010

A provincial dataset that describes surface water information (e.g., lakes, rivers, streams, barriers and obstacles) at a medium scale of 1:10,000 in southern Ontario, 1:20,000 in Northern Ontario and 1:50,000 in the Far North. The dataset contains six feature classes: Water Course (line feature), Waterbody (polygon), Shoreline, Hydrographic Point/Line/Poly.

Format: ESRI Shapefiles

Access: Download from Scholars GeoPortal

 

Ontario Integrated Hydrology Data Package

Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, 2002

A collection of related elevation and mapped water features that are used in combination for generating watersheds and to support hydrology applications. The integrated hydrology data is complete for the entire province making it possible to create a watershed for any location in Ontario. There are four key datasets represented by this collection: and its products include:  1.Stream network (Enhanced Watercourse) 2.Hydrology-enforced DEM (Stream Enforced DEM) 3. Flow direction grid (Enhanced Flow Direction) 4. Raster representation of the stream network (Stream Grid).

Format: ESRI Shapefiles, ARC/INFO GRID, Binary Float/Header (.dem)

Access: Downloaded from Scholars GeoPortal

 

Ambient Groundwater Geochemistry Data for Southwestern Ontario (MRD283)

Ontario Geological Survey, 2011

The dataset includes detailed inorganic chemistry for more than 900 water samples, which covers all of southwestern Ontario. Parameters tested include well information, dissolved gases, major ions, trace elements and field measurement of temperature, pH, redox potential and electrical conductivity. No geospatial data is directly included, but the coordinates of each data sample is available.

Format: TIFF, MS Excel

Access: Download from Ontario Geology

Forest

Ontario Forest Resources Inventory

Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, 2009

A provincial forest inventory comprised of two separate datasets: the planning inventory (including the planning composite and forecast depletions), and the base model inventory. It provides snapshot of a forest management unit's land and water features, as well as individual forest stands such as forest type, tree species, height, age and ownership information.

Format: ESRI Shapefiles

Access: Downloaded from Scholars GeoPortal

Conservation

Greenbelt Natural Heritage System

Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, 2005

it consists of four separate datasets: greenbelt outer boundary, natural heritage system areas (environmentally sensitive and agricultural land in the Golden Horseshoe protected by the Greenbelt Act), greenbelt selected wildlife habitat (polygon mapping of deer wintering areas and deer yards for Guelph district and Midhurst district) and external urban river connections (source water – rivers layer which identifies the river valley connections referenced in section 3.2.5 of the greenbelt plan).

Format: ESRI Shapefiles

Access: Download  from Scholars GeoPortal 

 

Oak Ridges Moraine

Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, 2002

The dataset comprises of environmental data collected by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources as part of the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan. The data set is specific to the area of the Oak Ridges Moraine. The layers include Areas of High Aquifer Vulnerability, Coordinates of the Oak Ridges Moraine,  Rare Threatened Endangered Species Occurrences, and Sand-barrens.

Format: ESRI Shapefiles

Access: Downloaded from Scholars GeoPortal

 

Source Protection Area Generalized

Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, 2008

A vector dataset of the Source Protection Areas created by the Clean Water Act within Ontario. The attribute table details the name of the Source Protection Area, the type of water resource, and the Source Protection Committee.

Format: ESRI Shapefiles

Access: Downloaded from Scholars GeoPortal

 

Rare Species Occurrence Data in Ontario

Natural Heritage Information Centre, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, 2012

This data is an export of provincially tracked species element occurrences (EOs) from the Biotics database maintained by the Natural Heritage Information Centre.

Format: DBF

Access: Downloaded from Scholars GeoPortal

 

Note: More data can be found in the Environment & Natural Resources of Canada Section.

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