Human Impact Land Use Layer from the Canadian Forest Service National Forest Inventory

Figures & data

Figure 1. National Forest Inventory Photo Plots for Canada.

Table 1. Human impact land use layer data fields.

Field name	Description
OBJECTID^a	Number from NFI PP boundary file
SHAPE^a	Number from NFI PP boundary file
NFI_PLOT^a	Photo plot number from NFI PP boundary file
PROV_TERR^a	Province, Territory 2 letter ID from NFI PP boundary file
BOREAL^a	From NFI PP boundary file
ECOZONE^a	From NFI PP boundary file
HUMAN_IMPA	0 = No Human impact
	1 = Human impact within PP
	2 = Human impact outside of PP
	4 = Cloudy or uninterpretable imagery
NEAR_DIST	Distance from outside boundary of PP to the nearest human impact. Planar distance.
NEAR_ANG	Bearing from boundary of plot to the nearest human impact. Planar North Azimuth.
SRC_DATE	Acquisition date of the portion of the image containing the human impact.
SRC_RES	Preprocessed resolution of the imagery.
SRC_DESC	Name of the satellite or photo program.
HI_1	The dominant human impact within the plot.
HI_2	The next most dominant impact within the plot.
TOTAL_AREA	The total area of all human impact within the plot. (Square meters)
PLOT_DESC	A brief description impacts, list by dominance (left to right) of impacts the interpreted within the plot. For HI = 2 only one impact is interpreted.
SHAPE_LENGTH^a	Number from NFI PP boundary file
SHAPE_AREA^a	Number from NFI PP boundary file

^aFor more detail, see Canada’s National Forest Inventory. “National Forest Inventory Photo Plot Data Dictionary for First Remeasurement”.

Table 2. Classes derived from interpreter plot descriptions.

Primary/Secondary class	Plot description	Interpreter notes
Agriculture
	Cropland	Fields greater than 10 Hectares for agricultural purposes.
	Farm(s)	Fields smaller than 10 Hectares for agricultural purposes.
	Pastureland	Fields with no evidence of machine harvest but contains tracks and trail that could be evidence of grazing.
Border
	USA/Canada	Thin strip of cleared land between the USA and Canada.
Canal
	Canal(s)	Artificial channel to remove excess water.
Forestry
	Forest harvest	Indicators of forest harvest (cut blocks, skid trails, roads, etc.) Trees less than 5 meters in height.
	Forest regrowth	Area where forest has regrown after harvest, but roads and harvest boundaries are still evident. Trees are greater than 5 meters in height.
Power
	Power corridor(s)	Corridors cleared of trees for transmission lines for electricity. Can include access roads for construction or maintenance.
	Solar farm(s)	Single or groups of solar arrays for power generation.
	Wind farm(s)	Single or groups of windmills for power generation.
Mine
	Coal mine	Strip or open pit mine for Coal extraction. Differs from other strip and open pit mines as the coal is visually distinct from other minerals.
	Drill pad(s)	Drill pads not associated with Oil or Gas exploration.
	Gravel pit(s)	Area for extraction of gravel.
	Open pit	Large open mine site, not associated with Coal.
	Placer mine	Gold mine using hydraulic mineral extraction.
	Quarry (rock)	Pits used for rock extraction.
	Strip mine	Stripped pattern of mineral extraction, not associated with Coal.
	Tailings
	Pile	Pile of waste material associated with mineral extraction activity.
	Pond	Settling pond for wastewater from mineral extraction activity.
Oil/Gas
	Gas plant	Facility for processing of oil or gas.
	Pipeline(s)	Corridor for transport of oil/gas via underground pipeline.
	Seismic line(s)	Long straight corridors for oil/gas seismic exploration.
	Oil sands	Mines for extraction of oil from sand deposits.
	Well pad(s)	Clearings for drill rigs used in oil/gas exploration or extraction.
Railway
	Railway	Single or dual tracks for train cars.
	Railyard	Multiple rail lines for loading and arranging train cars.
Reservoir
	Dam	Structure designed to hold water in a reservoir for water storage or power generation.
	Downstream effect	River flow influenced by upstream reservoir
	Reservoir	Water stored by use of an artificial structure.
Road
	Road(s)	Can be exposed soils, gravel or paved surfaces used for vehicular traffic.
	Winter road(s)	Road used in winter only, non-paved covered with snow or ice in Winter. In summer evidence is corridor with vegetation and water between lakes and rivers that is not a natural drainage corridor.
Settlement
	Airport	Paved or unpaved surface for use by aircraft.
	Building(s)	Structure(s) not used for human habitation.
	Cabin(s)	Houses meant for recreational or temporary occupation. Usually on lakes or rivers with access by boat, air, or unpaved roads.
	Campground	Temporary sites with road access for tents or recreational vehicles.
	Dock(s)	Structure to moor watercraft (boat(s), aircraft).
	Fish farm	Structure to contain fish for aqua cultural purposes.
	Garbage pit	Open pit facility for disposal of non-mineral waste products.
	Golf course(s)	Recreational area for golf.
	House(s)	Structures for continuous habitation on lots too small to be Rural residential and not close enough, or numerous enough, to be Urban residential. (<0.3 hectares)
	Marina	Docking facility for moorage of multiple watercraft.
	Nets	Nets anchored to water body bottom for aqua cultural purposes.
	Radar station	Sites of former or active radar stations for NORAD Distant Early Warning System.
	Rural residential	Houses on lots > 0.3 hectare but < 10.0 hectares.
	Sawmill	Facility for processing trees (Saw or Pulp).
	Ski hill	Recreation area for winter sports (skiing).
	Urban residential	Dense area of housing, lots <0.3 hectares.
	Waste treatment	Facility for liquid waste treatment.
Trail
	Trail(s)	Pathway for small vehicles, such as ATVs, or access by foot or horse. Extends from, or terminates, near Settlements or Roads.

Figure 2. Example of ESRI World Imagery Date mismatch with ESRI World Imagery.

Figure 3. Human Impact missed due to old imagery.

Figure 4. Area measurement of Human Impacts.

Figure 5. Seismic Lines: Left, Seismic line within 500 meters of each other, Right, Seismic lines greater than 500 m apart.

Figure 6. Human Impacts within NFI Photo Plots.

Table 3. NFI photo plot count by ecozone.

	Plot count					Plot percentage
Ecozone	No impact	Impact	Outside	Clouds	Total plots	No impact	Impact	Outside	Clouds
Arctic Cordillera	749	1	30	0	780	96.0%	0.1%	3.8%	0.0%
Northern Arctic	4,374	29	136	30	4,569	95.7%	0.6%	3.0%	0.7%
Southern Arctic	2,057	44	175	16	2,292	89.7%	1.9%	7.6%	0.7%
Taiga Plains	487	716	493	1	1,697	28.7%	42.2%	29.1%	0.1%
Taiga Shield	2,951	190	385	13	3,539	83.4%	5.4%	10.9%	0.4%
Boreal Shield	1,288	2,297	1,293	1	4,879	26.4%	47.1%	26.5%	0.0%
Atlantic Maritime	0	523	23	0	546	0.0%	95.8%	4.2%	0.0%
Mixedwood Plains	77	304	61	0	442	17.4%	68.8%	13.8%	0.0%
Boreal Plains	69	1,478	304	0	1,851	3.7%	79.8%	16.4%	0.0%
Prairies	0	1,161	5	0	1,166	0.0%	99.6%	0.4%	0.0%
Taiga Cordillera	527	32	107	18	684	77.0%	4.7%	15.6%	2.6%
Boreal Cordillera	620	141	409	21	1,191	52.1%	11.8%	34.3%	1.8%
Pacific Maritime	139	234	208	0	581	23.9%	40.3%	35.8%	0.0%
Montane Cordillera	112	773	335	3	1,223	9.2%	63.2%	27.4%	0.2%
Hudson Plains	766	45	137	0	948	80.8%	4.7%	14.5%	0.0%
Total	14,216	7,968	4,101	103	26,388	53.9%	30.2%	15.5%	0.4%

Table 4. Total area of impact within NFI photo plots.

	Hectares			Percentage
Ecozone	No impact	Impact	Total	No impact	Impact
Arctic Cordillera	311,995	5	312,000	100.0%	0.0%
Northern Arctic	1,826,698	902	1,827,600	100.0%	0.0%
Southern Arctic	916,006	794	916,800	99.9%	0.1%
Taiga Plains	639,502	39,298	678,800	94.2%	5.8%
Taiga Shield	1,381,043	34,557	1,415,600	97.6%	2.4%
Boreal Shield	1,538,153	413,447	1,951,600	78.8%	21.2%
Atlantic Maritime	39,700	178,700	218,400	18.2%	81.8%
Mixedwood Plains	68,694	108,106	176,800	38.9%	61.1%
Boreal Plains	416,803	323,597	740,400	56.3%	43.7%
Prairies	5,520	460,880	466,400	1.2%	98.8%
Taiga Cordillera	272,934	666	273,600	99.8%	0.2%
Boreal Cordillera	472,352	4,048	476,400	99.2%	0.8%
Pacific Maritime	184,852	47,548	232,400	79.5%	20.5%
Montane Cordillera	332,631	156,569	489,200	68.0%	32.0%
Hudson Plains	376,191	3,009	379,200	99.2%	0.8%
Total	8,783,074	1,772,126	10,555,200	83.2%	16.8%

Table 5. Area of human impact sorted by primary impact.

Ecozone	Agriculture	Forestry	Reservoir	Oil/Gas	Settlement	Road	Mine	Power	Trail	Railway	Canal	Border
Arctic Cordillera	0	0	0	0	0	5	0	0	0	0	0	0
Northern Arctic	0	0	0	0	333	59	228	0	283	0	0	0
Southern Arctic	0	0	0	193	171	157	27	0	247	0	0	0
Taiga Plains	0	4,254	0	34,196	81	694	35	0	38	0	0	0
Taiga Shield	0	0	33,150	24	540	305	21	454	55	8	0	0
Boreal Shield	20,438	316,272	45,237	774	14,665	6,763	3,927	2,891	2,402	79	0	0
Atlantic Maritime	21,918	150,582	0	0	4,209	591	610	699	92	0	0	0
Mixedwood Plains	88,953	6,711	400	0	10,607	445	511	400	9	0	69	0
Boreal Plains	147,786	73,019	28,780	68,195	2,706	1,419	825	585	254	28	0	0
Prairies	441,915	1,600	3,765	4,400	8,000	0	800	0	400	0	0	0
Taiga Cordillera	0	0	0	461	0	101	72	0	29	0	0	4
Boreal Cordillera	43	866	0	557	331	807	918	186	336	2	0	3
Pacific Maritime	2,437	40,107	317	0	3,635	298	605	150	0	0	0	0
Montane Cordillera	14,661	131,186	3,011	345	4,409	1,057	1,300	509	61	16	0	15
Hudson Plains	0	210	1,972	8	370	141	79	216	14	0	0	0
Hectares	738,151	724,806	116,631	109,153	50,056	12,841	9,956	6,090	4,217	133	69	21
Arctic Cordillera	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	100.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Northern Arctic	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	36.9%	6.6%	25.2%	0.0%	31.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Southern Arctic	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	24.3%	21.5%	19.7%	3.3%	0.0%	31.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Taiga Plains	0.0%	10.8%	0.0%	87.0%	0.2%	1.8%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Taiga Shield	0.0%	0.0%	95.9%	0.1%	1.6%	0.9%	0.1%	1.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Boreal Shield	4.9%	76.5%	10.9%	0.2%	3.5%	1.6%	0.9%	0.7%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Atlantic Maritime	12.3%	84.3%	0.0%	0.0%	2.4%	0.3%	0.3%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Mixedwood Plains	82.3%	6.2%	0.4%	0.0%	9.8%	0.4%	0.5%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
Boreal Plains	45.7%	22.6%	8.9%	21.1%	0.8%	0.4%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Prairies	95.9%	0.3%	0.8%	1.0%	1.7%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Taiga Cordillera	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	69.3%	0.0%	15.1%	10.8%	0.0%	4.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.5%
Boreal Cordillera	1.0%	21.4%	0.0%	13.8%	8.2%	19.9%	22.7%	4.6%	8.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
Pacific Maritime	5.1%	84.4%	0.7%	0.0%	7.6%	0.6%	1.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Montane Cordillera	9.4%	83.8%	1.9%	0.2%	2.8%	0.7%	0.8%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Hudson Plains	0.0%	7.0%	65.5%	0.3%	12.3%	4.7%	2.6%	7.2%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Total	41.7%	40.9%	6.6%	6.2%	2.8%	0.7%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%

Figure 7. Human Impacts within NFI Photo Plots and within 10 km of NFI Photo Plots.

Figure 8. Human Impacts by Primary Classification. Includes impact within and outside of the Photo Plot Boundary.

Table 6. Distance to human impact.

		Impact	Impact distance from plot boundary (km)
Ecozone	No impact	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	No data
Arctic Cordillera	749	1	3	1	4	0	3	3	4	4	3	5	0
Northern Arctic	4,374	29	12	11	7	13	17	21	15	16	10	14	30
Southern Arctic	2,057	44	30	25	16	12	17	9	18	12	18	18	16
Taiga Plains	487	716	172	99	55	37	34	18	24	24	18	12	1
Taiga Shield	2,951	190	48	34	37	38	37	26	36	39	51	39	13
Boreal Shield	1,288	2,297	348	193	143	139	102	89	101	70	62	46	1
Atlantic Maritime	0	523	13	3	1	3	1	0	1	1	0	0	0
Mixedwood Plains	77	304	8	7	4	7	4	6	5	7	5	8	0
Boreal Plains	69	1,478	112	38	42	26	19	20	11	17	13	6	0
Prairies	0	1,161	2	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Taiga Cordillera	527	32	16	12	16	6	13	11	9	8	11	5	18
Boreal Cordillera	620	141	77	51	45	38	40	34	37	37	17	33	21
Pacific Maritime	139	234	55	33	21	20	22	15	14	13	10	5	0
Montane Cordillera	112	773	108	51	47	32	23	19	23	8	14	10	3
Hudson Plains	766	45	13	21	13	15	13	10	7	21	13	11	0
Total	14,216	7,968	1,017	581	451	387	345	281	305	277	245	212	103
Arctic Cordillera	96.0%	0.1%	0.4%	0.1%	0.5%	0.0%	0.4%	0.4%	0.5%	0.5%	0.4%	0.6%	0.0%
Northern Arctic	95.7%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%	0.2%	0.3%	0.4%	0.5%	0.3%	0.4%	0.2%	0.3%	0.7%
Southern Arctic	89.7%	1.9%	1.3%	1.1%	0.7%	0.5%	0.7%	0.4%	0.8%	0.5%	0.8%	0.8%	0.7%
Taiga Plains	28.7%	42.2%	10.1%	5.8%	3.2%	2.2%	2.0%	1.1%	1.4%	1.4%	1.1%	0.7%	0.1%
Taiga Shield	83.4%	5.4%	1.4%	1.0%	1.0%	1.1%	1.0%	0.7%	1.0%	1.1%	1.4%	1.1%	0.4%
Boreal Shield	26.4%	47.1%	7.1%	4.0%	2.9%	2.8%	2.1%	1.8%	2.1%	1.4%	1.3%	0.9%	0.0%
Atlantic Maritime	0.0%	95.8%	2.4%	0.5%	0.2%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Mixedwood Plains	17.4%	68.8%	1.8%	1.6%	0.9%	1.6%	0.9%	1.4%	1.1%	1.6%	1.1%	1.8%	0.0%
Boreal Plains	3.7%	79.8%	6.1%	2.1%	2.3%	1.4%	1.0%	1.1%	0.6%	0.9%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%
Prairies	0.0%	99.6%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Taiga Cordillera	77.0%	4.7%	2.3%	1.8%	2.3%	0.9%	1.9%	1.6%	1.3%	1.2%	1.6%	0.7%	2.6%
Boreal Cordillera	52.1%	11.8%	6.5%	4.3%	3.8%	3.2%	3.4%	2.9%	3.1%	3.1%	1.4%	2.8%	1.8%
Pacific Maritime	23.9%	40.3%	9.5%	5.7%	3.6%	3.4%	3.8%	2.6%	2.4%	2.2%	1.7%	0.9%	0.0%
Montane Cordillera	9.2%	63.2%	8.8%	4.2%	3.8%	2.6%	1.9%	1.6%	1.9%	0.7%	1.1%	0.8%	0.2%
Hudson Plains	80.8%	4.7%	1.4%	2.2%	1.4%	1.6%	1.4%	1.1%	0.7%	2.2%	1.4%	1.2%	0.0%
Total	53.9%	30.2%	3.9%	2.2%	1.7%	1.5%	1.3%	1.1%	1.2%	1.0%	0.9%	0.8%	0.4%

Data availability statement

The HILL dataset can be obtained from the National Forest Inventory upon completion of a data request form. This form can be found under the tab “Data & Tools” @ https://nfi.nfis.org