Identification_Information: Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: Global Forest Watch Canada Publication_Date: October 2010 Title: Nova Scotia’s Intact Forest Landscapes > 500 ha Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: vector digital data Publication_Information: Publication_Place: Edmonton, AB Publisher: Global Forest Watch Canada Online_Linkage: www.globalforestwatch.ca Larger_Work_Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: Global Forest Watch Canada Publication_Date: 2010 Title: Nova Scotia Intact Forest Landscapes: Opportunities for Conservation Planning Online_Linkage: www.globalforestwatch.ca Description: Abstract: Nova Scotia Intact Forest Landscapes > 500 ha: An intact forest landscape is defined by Global Forest Watch Canada as a contiguous mosaic of naturally occurring ecosystems, including forest, bog, water, tundra, and rock outcrops, that is within a forest ecozone (the province of Nova Scotia falls within the Atlantic Maritime Forest Ecozone), and that is essentially undisturbed by significant human influence visible on Landsat satellite images. Intact forest landscape fragments are the best remaining pieces of our once-intact forest landscapes and they are therefore critical to the restoration of ecosystem functioning in areas affected by human development. By mapping the remaining intact forest landscapes within Canada’s forest ecozones, we aim to provide better information for balancing industry needs and values with the need for recognition of non-market values, many of which are associated with relatively undisturbed forests. Mapping forest fragments provides a baseline from which future assessments of changes to Canada’s remaining forest fragments can be made and from which further analysis can be performed to assist forest conservation planning and decision-making. Intact forest landscape fragments were mapped by excluding the following types of disturbances and associated buffer exclusion zone from potential intact forest landscapes: 1. Infrastructure used for communication between settlements and industrial sites; or for industrial exploitation of natural resources (including roads, railways, pipelines, powerlines and other linear disturbances) (200m exclusion zone); 2. Agricultural and urban lands (200m exclusion zone); 3. Territories disturbed by economic activities during the last 30-70 years (logging, sanitary landfill, gravel pits, mining operation sites, abandoned agricultural lands, etc.) (200m exclusion zone); 4. Artificially restored forests, or tree plantations, if their existence can be detected on Landsat satellite imagery (200m exclusion zone); Waterbodies which represented more than half of a remaining intact forest landscape fragment were also eliminated from the dataset. It should be noted that some human impacts are invisible from space, such as small forest roads and paths. Other smaller-scale impacts (including some selective logging) that occurred more than 30-70 years ago often become invisible on satellite imagery and indistinguishable from the natural dynamics of the forest. Therefore, only more recent human impacts are recorded, which means that there is some overestimation of intact forest landscape areas despite the buffer exclusion zones applied to the disturbance layers that were used to create the intact forest landscape data. Purpose: This is the spatial data used to analysis the distribution and extent of Nova Scotia' Intact Forest Landscapes > 500 ha in 2007. By mapping the remaining intact forest landscapes within Canada’s forest ecozones, we aim to provide better information for balancing industry needs and values with the need for recognition of non-market values, many of which are associated with relatively undisturbed forests. Mapping forest fragments provides a baseline from which future assessments of changes to Canada’s remaining forest fragments can be made and from which further analysis can be performed to assist forest conservation planning and decision-making. Supplemental_Information: Methodologies and analysis of the data are described in the associated report: Nova Scotia's Intact Forest Landscapes: Opportunities for Conservation Planning. Time_Period_of_Content: Time_Period_Information: Single_Date/Time: Calendar_Date: 2007 Currentness_Reference: publication date Status: Progress: Complete Maintenance_and_Update_Frequency: None planned Spatial_Domain: Bounding_Coordinates: West_Bounding_Coordinate: -66.276666 East_Bounding_Coordinate: -59.636118 North_Bounding_Coordinate: 47.067106 South_Bounding_Coordinate: 43.487123 Keywords: Theme: Theme_Keyword: Intact Forest Landscapes Place: Place_Keyword: Nova Scotia Temporal: Temporal_Keyword: 2007 Access_Constraints: This data is provided "AS IS" and the accuracy or reliability of the data is not guaranteed or warranted in any way. Global Forest Watch Canada disclaims liability of any kind whatsoever, including, without limitation, liability for quality, performance, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose arising out of the use, or inability to use the data. Use_Constraints: Global Forest Watch Canada cannot provide any warranty of the data, nor be responsible for any uses of it. Point_of_Contact: Contact_Information: Contact_Organization_Primary: Contact_Organization: Global Forest Watch Canada Contact_Person: GIS Group Contact_Position: GIS Group Contact_Voice_Telephone: 780-422-5989 Contact_Facsimile_Telephone: 780-454-5521 Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: info@globalforestwatch.ca Hours_of_Service: 9:00am - 4:30pm Mountain Time Data_Set_Credit: Global Forest Watch Canada Native_Data_Set_Environment: Microsoft Windows XP Version 5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 3; ESRI ArcCatalog 9.3.1.1850 Data_Quality_Information: Lineage: Source_Information: Source_Contribution: Source Landsat TM images from MDA Geospatial Services and EarthExplorer, USGS. Landsat Images used are listed in the associated GFWC report. Cloud_Cover: < 10% Spatial_Data_Organization_Information: Direct_Spatial_Reference_Method: Vector Point_and_Vector_Object_Information: SDTS_Terms_Description: SDTS_Point_and_Vector_Object_Type: G-polygon Point_and_Vector_Object_Count: 407 Spatial_Reference_Information: Horizontal_Coordinate_System_Definition: Planar: Grid_Coordinate_System: Grid_Coordinate_System_Name: Universal Transverse Mercator Universal_Transverse_Mercator: UTM_Zone_Number: 20 Transverse_Mercator: Scale_Factor_at_Central_Meridian: 0.999600 Longitude_of_Central_Meridian: -63.000000 Latitude_of_Projection_Origin: 0.000000 False_Easting: 500000.000000 False_Northing: 0.000000 Planar_Coordinate_Information: Planar_Coordinate_Encoding_Method: coordinate pair Coordinate_Representation: Abscissa_Resolution: 0.000000 Ordinate_Resolution: 0.000000 Planar_Distance_Units: meters Geodetic_Model: Horizontal_Datum_Name: North American Datum of 1983 Ellipsoid_Name: Geodetic Reference System 80 Semi-major_Axis: 6378137.000000 Denominator_of_Flattening_Ratio: 298.257222 Entity_and_Attribute_Information: Detailed_Description: Entity_Type: Entity_Type_Label: NS_IFL_2007 Attribute: Attribute_Label: FID Attribute_Definition: Internal feature number. Attribute_Definition_Source: ESRI Attribute_Domain_Values: Unrepresentable_Domain: Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated. Attribute: Attribute_Label: Shape Attribute_Definition: Feature geometry. Attribute_Definition_Source: ESRI Attribute_Domain_Values: Unrepresentable_Domain: Coordinates defining the features. Attribute: Attribute_Label: IFL_ha Attribute_Definition: Area of IFL > 500 ha in hectares Attribute: Attribute_Label: Class Attribute_Definition: IFL Size Class category in hectares Distribution_Information: Resource_Description: Downloadable Data Standard_Order_Process: Digital_Form: Digital_Transfer_Information: Transfer_Size: 19.091 Metadata_Reference_Information: Metadata_Date: 20101014 Metadata_Review_Date: None Planned Metadata_Contact: Contact_Information: Contact_Organization_Primary: Contact_Organization: Global Forest Watch Canada Contact_Person: GIS Group Contact_Address: Address_Type: mailing address Address: 10337 146 street City: Edmonton State_or_Province: Alberta Postal_Code: T5N 3A3 Country: Canada Contact_Voice_Telephone: 780-422-5989 Contact_Facsimile_Telephone: 780-454-5521 Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: info@globalforestwatch.ca Hours_of_Service: 9:00am - 4:30pm Metadata_Standard_Name: FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata Metadata_Standard_Version: FGDC-STD-001-1998 Metadata_Time_Convention: local time Metadata_Extensions: Online_Linkage: http://www.esri.com/metadata/esriprof80.html Profile_Name: ESRI Metadata Profile