Spatial Framework

NFCMARS employs a nested ecological framework, consisting, at the highest level, of 18 reporting zones (Figure1) based on the Terrestrial Ecozones of Canada. Beneath these, the framework includes 60 reconciliation units. These are the geographic entities formed by the intersection of Reporting Zones with the provincial and territorial boundaries. They are used to reconcile data from multiple agencies during estimate development. The compilation of land and activity data, and the calculation of estimates, occurs at a finer geographic resolution using areas called analysis units. Forest-related data have been compiled for over 500 analysis units that are delineated by the boundaries of forest management units, parks and ecological zones. Analysis units are nested within reconciliation units.

Figure 1 Reporting Zones

Figure 2. Reconciliation Units.

The carbon accounting team of the Canadian Forest Service is currently developing a spatial data management system for NFCMARS to house all of this information. This enterprise-level spatial database infrastructure is currently being deployed and tested. The new infrastructure will provide a formal versioning system for data, querying and analysis capabilities across multiple datasets and traceability for all results reported from the system.

A public portal, enabling public users to obtain high level summary data about the carbon budget of Canada’s forests from NFCMARS, is planned.