Mapping human influence in Canada shows many areas under heavy human pressure while other areas are largely intact

Human influence, or human pressures, on the environment are actions taken by humans that have the potential to harm nature.

Here we use nationally available data that helps reflect different human pressures on the environment from activities including human presence, access to the land, agriculture, and the natural resource industries.

We used mapping software to determine where the different pressures overlap so that we could see the pattern of where human pressures concentrate in Canada.

Read the open access paper on the FACETS website.

By incorporating more than one pressure, it is possible to develop a more complete understanding of the interacting pressures on the country.

With the 12 pressures we included, only 18% of the country had measurable pressures. However, some areas of Canada are experiencing high levels of human pressures such as the Great Lakes Plains (containing the Quebec — Windsor Corridor), which has over 75% considered as high human pressure and the Prairies with over 56% in high human pressures.

We used a statistical verification to see if imagery matched what our data showed.

From the statistical test we found that there was almost perfect agreement between the imagery and our data, demonstrating the quality of the human pressure dataset we produced.

Our efforts show how important regional data are compared to generalized global data that aren’t able to capture all the different human pressures on a given area.

With more specific data we have found southern Canada is experiencing much higher levels of human pressure than previous global efforts mapped, which may highlight challenges in finding and protecting patches of remaining nature in areas of high human pressure.

Read the paper — Canada’s human footprint reveals large intact areas juxtaposed against areas under immense anthropogenic pressure by Kristen Hirsh-Pearson, Chris J. Johnson, Richard Schuster, Roger D. Wheate, and Oscar Venter