New interactive report on status of human footprint in Alberta
Measuring human footprint information is increasingly being used as a land use planning tool to monitor the status of landscapes. The Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI) is improving how it reports on human footprint (HF) in Alberta, and has a new comprehensive overview of the status of HF across the province that is available as an interactive online report through their website, and will be updated annually.
The ABMI defines human footprint as the visible alteration or conversion of native ecosystems to temporary or permanent residential, recreational, agricultural, or industrial landscapes. In this report, ABMI summarizes the status and trend of human footprint throughout Alberta. They provide an overview of human footprint at the provincial scale but also break down the information on status and trend of human footprint by natural regions, land use framework planning region, and by oil sands regions.
Information on the status and trend of HF is relevant to many land-management decisions, and the ABMI is committed to supporting land managers with the most accurate and convenient data available, and welcomes feedback on this, or any other ABMI data product via abmiinfo [at] ualberta.ca (email.)
Other useful resources from ABMI such as their mapping portal and data portal can be found on their website.
