We work together to achieve greater outcomes.
Collaborative environmental monitoring in the Oil Sands Region.
Lidar and imagery data for Alberta.
Translating monitoring results and scientific information for a range of audiences and end users.
We are committed to working with groups that are interested in the management of Alberta’s living resources.
Working together to mobilize biodiversity data.
A grassroots initiative that works with Indigenous communities interested in biodiversity monitoring.
Learn about landholder information and land access details.
Explore our ongoing and past projects, collaborations, and how we apply research in the field.
View detailed online status reports summarizing land cover and biodiversity information for different regions.
Learn about the species ABMI monitors in Alberta’s encyclopedia of life.
Read and download our academic publications, annual reports, monitoring protocols, and more.
Explore, visualize, and create maps for areas of interest in Alberta.
Manage, store, process, share, and discover environmental sensor data.
Use this tool to instantly generate a report on land cover and biodiversity for many areas of interest across Alberta.
Our code repository for species habitat models, the wildRtrax R package, land cover indicators, and more.
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Our staff have a wide range of expertise that are important to the ABMI's success and day-to-day operations.
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To map and monitor these habitats in “natural areas”—areas outside of visible human footprint—we combine diverse geospatial datasets and a variety of the latest tools and technologies.
The principal data sources include open access satellite imagery, terrain models, aerial photography, and laser scan data (i.e., lidar). The main tools and technologies include:
Terrestrial habitat mapping and monitoring is done within two units in our Geospatial Centre, based on scales of data and analysis: the Earth Observation Insights Unit and the Geospatial Foundations Unit.
Earth Observation Insights
Harnessing the power of satellite data to monitor our changing environment
The Earth Observation Insights Unit brings together open access satellite imagery from multiple sources, including Sentinel-1 (microwave radar) and Sentinel-2 (multispectral optical), terrain datasets (e.g., digital elevation and surface models), and other geospatial information to map and monitor terrestrial habitats across Alberta. This work leverages Google’s cloud-based Earth Engine platform alongside the latest machine learning techniques to tackle the challenges of large-scale land cover mapping. Much of the Earth Observation Insight's terrestrial mapping has focused on wetlands, but it also includes upland mapping. To learn more about Earth Observation Insights Unit (formerly “ALPHA” or “Advanced Land cover Prediction and Habitat Assessment–Satellite”), check out this webinar from February of 2019, or go to our Open Data Portal to access various satellite-based products freely available for download.
Wetland Mapping and Monitoring
A New Wetland Inventory for Alberta
The Google Earth Engine-powered webmap for visualizing this dataset is available here.
Our Alberta-wide Wetland Inventory, released in 2021, maps major wetland classes—fen, bog, marsh, swamp, and open water—following the mapping standards outlined in the Alberta Wetland Classification and Canadian Wetland Classification Systems. We mapped using Sentinel-1 and -2 satellite imagery, terrain datasets, and other inputs such as the Human Footprint Inventory. We leveraged Google’s cloud-based Earth Engine platform and machine learning technology (e.g., neural networks) to handle the large volumes of complex multi-source data needed for habitat mapping at these scales.
The province was divided into three broad ecoregions for wetland mapping, each with its own distinct wetland characteristics:
Wetlands were mapped separately in each region using specially designed methods and then combined to form the Alberta-wide inventory. Details on methods can be found in the technical documentation that accompanies the dataset in our Open Data Portal.
Map showing the ABMI’s Alberta-wide Wetland Inventory.
Upland Habitat Mapping
Work is in progress within the Geospatial Centre to develop upland habitat inventories for Alberta's boreal regions. This work will combine optical Sentinel-2 and radar Sentinel-1 satellite imagery from the European Space Agency with machine learning in Google’s Earth Engine environment. The ABMI’s 3 x 7 Photoplot and Human Footprint Inventory datasets, alongside other data sources, are key to helping classification algorithms learn to differentiate different upland classes.
Figure showing potential mapping inputs and a preliminary upland classification in northern Alberta.
Explore our Geospatial Data
Explore, visualize, and create maps and data summaries for areas of interest in the province of Alberta.
Information on Vegetation Structure
The Geospatial Foundations Unit brings aerial photography, 3D lidar point clouds, and machine learning together to map and monitor fine-scale habitat features, bridging the scale gap between satellite imagery and ground observations. Mapping vegetation structure down to the individual tree level can offer valuable information on vegetation status, health, and trends. This in turn can help us understand the recovery of vegetation on seismic lines, or contribute to detailed wetland classification.
See the potential of Geospatial Foundations in a recent publication on caribou habitat mapping in northwestern Alberta.