Saskatchewan Digital Landcover

The Saskatchewan Digital Land Cover was created to be used in the interim. The National Land Cover Project plans to integrate land cover information compiled by Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

The Saskatchewan Digital Land Cover raster provides a seamless provincial coverage of the province and was created by combining the Saskatchewan Research Council's Northern Digital Land Cover (NDLC) with the Southern Digital Land Cover (SDLC).  With exception to the SDLC's value 2 (i.e. Hay Crops) and value 3 (i.e. Native Dominant Grass Lands), the NDLC takes precedence over the SDLC in areas that the two rasters overlap because the NDLC is more current than the dated SDLC. The SDLC's values 2 and 3 were preserved because these land covers are not specifically represented in the NDLC. For the purpose of this dataset, some of the SDLC and NDLC values were reclassified to new values to reconcile varying definitions.  It should also be noted that because the NDLC's 30 x 30 metre pixels do not align with the SDLC's 30 x 30 metre pixels, this raster was snapped to the NDLC. Last, as is with the SDLC and the NDLC, the extent of this raster does not extend all of the way to the Saskatchewan boundary, specifically, the Information Services Corporation's SaskGIS Provincial Boundary dataset, in numerous areas along the west, south and southeast borders: There are gaps of up to 500 m wide of "no data" between the provincial boundary and the raster along these areas of the Saskatchewan boundary. Classification Value AGRICULTURE 1 HAY CROPS 2 NATIVE DOMINANT GRASSLANDS 3 TALL SHRUBS 4 PASTURE 5 HARDWOODS (OPEN CANOPY) 6 HARDWOODS (CLOSED CANOPY) 7 JACKPINE (CLOSED CANOPY) 8 JACKPINE (OPEN CANOPY) 9 SPRUCE (CLOSED CANOPY) 10 SPRUCE (OPEN CANOPY) 11 MIXED WOODS 12 TREED ROCK 13 RECENT BURNS 14 REVEGETATING/REGENERATION BURN 15 CUTOVERS 16 WATER 17 MARSH 18 HERBACEOUS FEN 19 MUD/SAND/SALINE 20 SHRUB FEN (TREED SWAMP) 21 TREED BOG 22 OPEN BOG 23 FARMSTEAD 24 UNCLASSIFIED 25 BARREN LAND 26 MIXED SOFTWOODS (OPEN & CLOSED) 27 PASTURE UPLAND HERBACEOUS GRAMINOID 30 1. AGRICULTURE - Cropland, including all lands dedicated to the production of annual cereal, oil seed, and other specialty crops, and typically cultivated on an annual basis; and agricultural clearing areas.  2. HAY CROPS (Forage) - Alfalfa and alfalfa/tame grass mixtures.  3. NATIVE DOMINANT GRASSLANDS - Native dominant grasslands. (May contain tame grasses and herbs.)  4. TALL SHRUBS - Communities containing both low and tall shrub, snowberry, saskatoon, chokecherry, buffaloberry, and willow.  5. PASTURE (Seeded Grass Lands) - Grassland dominated by tame grass species.  6. HARDWOODS (I.E. OPEN CANOPY) - Greater than 75% hardwoods by area, including trembling aspen, white birch, balsam poplar; 10 - 55% crown closure.  7. HARDWOODS (I.E. CLOSED CANOPY) - Greater than 75% hardwoods by area, including trembling aspen, white birch, balsam poplar; Greater than 55% crown closure.  8. JACKPINE (I.E. CLOSED CANOPY) - Greater than 75% of Jack Pine by area; Greater than 55% crown closure.  9. JACKPINE (I.E. OPEN CANOPY) - Greater than 75% of Jack Pine by area; 10 - 55% crown closure.  10. SPRUCE (I.E. CLOSED CANOPY) - Greater than 75% or greater Black and White Spruce; Greater than 55% crown closure.  11. SPRUCE (I.E. OPEN CANOPY) - Greater than 75% Black and White Spruce; 10-55% crown closure.  12. MIXED WOODS - All softwood/hardwood mixtures; open and closed canopy (i.e. An area of hardwood and softwood combinations in which neither hardwood nor softwood account for greater than 75% of species by area, and where the crown closure is greater than 10%).  13. TREED ROCK - Areas of exposed bedrock with generally less then 10% tree cover.  14. RECENT BURNS - An area showing evidence of recent burning natural or prescribed and there is little to no regeneration or revegetation visible.  15. REVEGETATING/REGENERATION BURN - An area showing evidence of natural or prescribed burning and where regeneration or revegetation is visible.  16. CUTOVERS - An area of deforestation, vegetated and non-vegetated.  17. WATER - These areas include lakes, rivers, streams and reservoirs  18. MARSH - A periodically wet or continually flooded but non peat-forming area supporting grasses, sedges, and reeds.  19. HERBACEOUS FEN - A wetland area consisting of decomposing peat supporting vascular and nonvascular plants (i.e. grasses, sedges, reeds).  20. MUD/SAND/SALINE - Water saturated soil, sand containing no vegetation, and salt water.  21. SHRUB FEN (I.E. TREED SWAMP) - A wetland area consisting of decomposing peat supporting low shrubs, forbs, grass, moss, and a sparse tree cover.  22. TREED BOG - A wetland area consisting of decomposing peat moss, lichen, and shrubs, with 10% or more canopy by trees (i.e. primarily black spruce and tamarack).  23. OPEN BOG - A wetland area consisting of decomposing peat moss, lichen, and sparse tree cover.  24. FARMSTEAD - Farmsteads, towns, cities, exposed areas with little or no vegetation.  25. UNCLASSIFIED  26. BARREN LAND - Any area of exposed rock, soil, or non-vegetated land.  27. MIXED SOFTWOODS (OPEN & CLOSED) - Jack Pine/Spruce, Spruce/Jack Pine Open and Closed, an area of softwood combinations in which neither Jack Pine or Spruce account for greater than 75% of species by area, and where crown closure is greater than 10%.  30. PASTURE UPLAND HERBACEOUS GRAMINOID - Lands containing known pastures, tame or native grasses, and herbaceous vegetation. These lands may contain low-lying shrubs with less then 10% tree cover.