Land Cover is a classification of land surface materials into themes such as forests, wetlands, crops and pasture, snow and ice, rock, and urban development. Land Cover can be used in a wide variety of applications in forestry, the environment, agriculture, wetlands and land use in general, to make crucial decisions about urban development and resource management. 

Land Cover Map

GeoBase Land Cover information is the result of vectorization of raster thematic data originating from Landsat 5 and Landsat 7 orthoimages acquired between 1999 and 2003. The forestry coverage of the provinces was produced by the Canadian Forest Service (CFS) with the collaboration of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and in partnership with the provincial and territorial governments. The agricultural coverage of the provinces was produced by the National Land and Water Information Service (NLWIS) of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). Northern Territories land cover was produced by the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS).

Land Cover data are classified according to a harmonized legend built from the partner's legends. This legend is principally based on the legend described in the following publication: EOSD Land Cover Classification Legend Report, on which CFS and AAFC collaborated. Some classes related to Northern environments where added in order to meet the interpretation of the Northern land cover classification experts.