Abbotsford Sensitive Ecosystem Inventory
Provides the location and attributes for sensitive and important ecosystems throughout Metro Vancouver and Abbotsford.
A Sensitive Ecosystem Inventory (SEI) was conducted for Greater Vancouver Regional District (Metro Vancouver) and Abbotsford from January 2010 – May 2012. The project was initiated in response to the need for up-to-date, standardized ecological information for the entire region to support future decision making.
Provincial SEI standards were followed to identify and map ecologically significant and relatively unmodified 'Sensitive Ecosystems', including wetlands, older forests and woodlands.In addition 'Modified Ecosystems' such as seasonally flooded agricultural fields and young forests, which are human modified but still have ecological value and importance to biodiversity were included in the mapping process. The project area totaled 367,000 ha, consisting of over 330,000 ha of terrestrial lands plus several thousand hectares of rivers, freshwater bodies, intertidal and estuarine zones.
Three main approaches were used to build the inventory of polygons. Existing Terrestrial Ecosystem Mapping (TEM) was used to generate SEI values in the Coquitlam, Capilano and Seymour watersheds; the Regional Parks network; and Mount Seymour and Indian Arm Provincial Parks. Riparian fringe and gully SEI classes could often not be directly translated from TEM so had to be newly generated. SEI mapping from earlier projects was available for Bowen Island and Sumas Mountain, and this was adjusted where necessary and used to complete the inventory for these areas. For remaining areas with no existing TEM, SEI mapping was developed through image interpretation followed by selective field checks to confirm and inform mapping decisions. For new mapping, 20% of polygons were checked in the field.
Two sets of digital format aerial imagery (orthophotography) from 2007 and 2009 were the primary image sources used and together provided complete coverage of the project area. Polygons were delineated at 1:5,000 (new mapping) to 1:10,000 - 1:20,000 (originating from TEM). Sites as small as 0.5 ha were mapped, with the exception of some “Modified Ecosystems”, where only larger instances were mapped, e.g., greater than 2.5 ha for old fields and seasonally flooded agricultural fields. Some sites originating from TEM were smaller than 0.5 ha and these were also included in the inventory.
Key attributes of class and subclass, structural stage, stand composition, condition and size were recorded for each component within a polygon. Although a polygon can have up to three ecosystem components, attempts were made to map as many pure sites as possible (i.e. one component). Other attributes of biogeoclimatic unit, landscape context, disturbance factors and ecosystem 'quality' were recorded for the polygon as a whole.
Users of the SEI must take into account certain limitations inherent with this type of dataset and consider how those limitations may impact the intended use of the information. This includes differences between the dataset and actual site conditions that could be due to human error, classification difficulties, and changes to the site occurring after the date of the imagery or field work. The dataset is considered accurate at the scale it was delineated at and should not be enlarged beyond this. The SEI does not replace the need for on-site assessments to support any decisions made for a particular area.
Datasets available for download
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SEI_Full_Oct2013Feature Layer
Layer 2 via ArcGIS REST API
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SEI_Full_Oct2013 (Explore)HTML
Explore SEI_Full_Oct2013 on ArcGIS Hub
Additional Info
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| Last Updated | March 25, 2026, 02:16 (UTC) |
| Created | March 25, 2026, 02:16 (UTC) |
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Domain / Topic
Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.
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Title
Title for the Dataset.
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Abbotsford Sensitive Ecosystem Inventory |
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Description
A description of the dataset.
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Provides the location and attributes for sensitive and important ecosystems throughout Metro Vancouver and Abbotsford. A Sensitive Ecosystem Inventory (SEI) was conducted for Greater Vancouver Regional District (Metro Vancouver) and Abbotsford from January 2010 – May 2012. The project was initiated in response to the need for up-to-date, standardized ecological information for the entire region to support future decision making. Provincial SEI standards were followed to identify and map ecologically significant and relatively unmodified 'Sensitive Ecosystems', including wetlands, older forests and woodlands.In addition 'Modified Ecosystems' such as seasonally flooded agricultural fields and young forests, which are human modified but still have ecological value and importance to biodiversity were included in the mapping process. The project area totaled 367,000 ha, consisting of over 330,000 ha of terrestrial lands plus several thousand hectares of rivers, freshwater bodies, intertidal and estuarine zones. Three main approaches were used to build the inventory of polygons. Existing Terrestrial Ecosystem Mapping (TEM) was used to generate SEI values in the Coquitlam, Capilano and Seymour watersheds; the Regional Parks network; and Mount Seymour and Indian Arm Provincial Parks. Riparian fringe and gully SEI classes could often not be directly translated from TEM so had to be newly generated. SEI mapping from earlier projects was available for Bowen Island and Sumas Mountain, and this was adjusted where necessary and used to complete the inventory for these areas. For remaining areas with no existing TEM, SEI mapping was developed through image interpretation followed by selective field checks to confirm and inform mapping decisions. For new mapping, 20% of polygons were checked in the field. Two sets of digital format aerial imagery (orthophotography) from 2007 and 2009 were the primary image sources used and together provided complete coverage of the project area. Polygons were delineated at 1:5,000 (new mapping) to 1:10,000 - 1:20,000 (originating from TEM). Sites as small as 0.5 ha were mapped, with the exception of some “Modified Ecosystems”, where only larger instances were mapped, e.g., greater than 2.5 ha for old fields and seasonally flooded agricultural fields. Some sites originating from TEM were smaller than 0.5 ha and these were also included in the inventory. Key attributes of class and subclass, structural stage, stand composition, condition and size were recorded for each component within a polygon. Although a polygon can have up to three ecosystem components, attempts were made to map as many pure sites as possible (i.e. one component). Other attributes of biogeoclimatic unit, landscape context, disturbance factors and ecosystem 'quality' were recorded for the polygon as a whole. Users of the SEI must take into account certain limitations inherent with this type of dataset and consider how those limitations may impact the intended use of the information. This includes differences between the dataset and actual site conditions that could be due to human error, classification difficulties, and changes to the site occurring after the date of the imagery or field work. The dataset is considered accurate at the scale it was delineated at and should not be enlarged beyond this. The SEI does not replace the need for on-site assessments to support any decisions made for a particular area. |
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Tags / Keywords
Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.
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Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc)
File format of the dataset.
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Dataset Size
Dataset size in megabytes.
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99536.0 |
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Metadata Identifier
Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
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Published Date
Published date of the dataset.
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2022-06-23 |
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Time Period Data Span (start date)
Start date of the data in the dataset.
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Time Period Data Span (end date)
End date of time data in the dataset.
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GeoSpatial Area Data Span
A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.
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Access category
Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
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public |
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License
License used to access the dataset.
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License not specified |
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Limits on use
Limits on use of data.
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Location
Location of the dataset.
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https://opendata-Abbotsford.hub.arcgis.com/datasets/Abbotsford::abbotsford-sensitive-ecosystem-inventory |
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Data Service
Data service for accessing a dataset.
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Owner
Owner of the dataset.
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Data_Abbotsford |
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Contact Point
Who to contact regarding access?
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City of Abbotsford |
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Contact Point Email
The email to contact regarding access?
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[email protected] |
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Publisher
Publisher of the dataset.
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City of Abbotsford |
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Publisher Email
Email of the publisher.
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Author
Author of the dataset.
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Data_Abbotsford |
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Author Email
Email of the author.
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Accessed At
Date the data and metadata was accessed.
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2022-06-23 |
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Identifier
Unique identifier for the dataset.
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36f1c8a651b1467abb758d9560225d78 |
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Language
Language(s) of the dataset
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English |
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Link to dataset description
A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
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https://opendata-Abbotsford.hub.arcgis.com/datasets/Abbotsford::abbotsford-sensitive-ecosystem-inventory |
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Persistent Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
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Globally Unique Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
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Contains data about individuals
Does the data hold data about individuals?
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Contains data about identifiable individuals
Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
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Contains Indigenous Data
Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
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Portal Type
Platform type of the source portal.
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Version
Version of the datatset
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None |
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Source
Source of the dataset.
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None |
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Version notes
Version notes about the dataset.
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Is version of another dataset
Link to dataset that it is a version of.
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Other versions
Link to datasets that are versions of it.
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Provenance Text
Provenance Text of the data.
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City of Abbotsford |
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Provenance URL
Provenance URL of the data.
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Temporal resolution
Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
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GeoSpatial resolution in meters
Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
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GeoSpatial resolution (in regions)
Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.
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Indigenous Community Permission
Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
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Community Permission
Community permission (who gave permission).
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The Indigenous communities the dataset is about
Indigenous communities from which data is derived.
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Number of data rows
If tabular dataset, total number of rows.
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25810 |
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Number of data columns
If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
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156 |
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Number of data cells
If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
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4026360 |
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Number of data relations
If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
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Number of entities
If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
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Number of data properties
If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
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Data quality
Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
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Metric for data quality
A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.
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