Environmentally Sensitive Policy Area (ESPA)

Environmentally Sensitive Policy Area (ESPA) The layer Environmentally Sensitive Policy Areas (ROP15_EnvSensitivePolicyArea) is a component of Map 4 (Greenlands Network) of the Regional Official Plan (ROP) as adopted by Council on June 16, 2009, and approved by the Ontario Municipal Board on June 18, 2015 . Environmentally Sensitive Policy Areas are regionally significant natural areas that comprise: (a) Provincially significant Life Science Areas of Natural and Scientific Interest, regionally significant Life Science Areas of Natural and Scientific Interest, or provincially significant Earth Science Areas of Natural and Scientific Interest; or (b) At least two of the following criteria: i) comprise ecological communities deemed unusual, of outstanding quality or particularly representative regionally, provincially or nationally; ii) contain critical habitats which are uncommon or remnants of once extensive habitats such as old growth forest, forest interior habitat, Carolinian forest, prairie-savanna, alvars, cliffs, bogs, fens, marl meadows, and cold water streams; iii) provide a large area of natural habitat of at least 20 hectares which affords habitat to species intolerant of human intrusion; or iv) provide habitat for organisms native to the region recognized as regionally, provincially or nationally significant; or (c) fulfill one of the criteria in Policy 7.C.5(b) and any two of the following: i) contain an unusual diversity of native life forms due to varied topography, microclimates, soils and/or drainage regimes; ii) perform a vital ecological function such as maintaining the hydrological balance over a widespread area by acting as a natural water storage, discharge or recharge area; iii) provide a linking system of relatively undisturbed forest or other natural habitat for the movement of wildlife over a considerable distance; iv) serve as major migratory stop-over or significant over-wintering habitat; or v) contain landforms deemed unusual or particularly representative at the regional scale.

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Additional Info

Field Value
Last Updated September 23, 2026, 07:06 (UTC)
Created March 25, 2026, 01:49 (UTC)
Domain / Topic
Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.
Title
Title for the Dataset.
Environmentally Sensitive Policy Area (ESPA)
Description
A description of the dataset.

Environmentally Sensitive Policy Area (ESPA) The layer Environmentally Sensitive Policy Areas (ROP15_EnvSensitivePolicyArea) is a component of Map 4 (Greenlands Network) of the Regional Official Plan (ROP) as adopted by Council on June 16, 2009, and approved by the Ontario Municipal Board on June 18, 2015 . Environmentally Sensitive Policy Areas are regionally significant natural areas that comprise: (a) Provincially significant Life Science Areas of Natural and Scientific Interest, regionally significant Life Science Areas of Natural and Scientific Interest, or provincially significant Earth Science Areas of Natural and Scientific Interest; or (b) At least two of the following criteria: i) comprise ecological communities deemed unusual, of outstanding quality or particularly representative regionally, provincially or nationally; ii) contain critical habitats which are uncommon or remnants of once extensive habitats such as old growth forest, forest interior habitat, Carolinian forest, prairie-savanna, alvars, cliffs, bogs, fens, marl meadows, and cold water streams; iii) provide a large area of natural habitat of at least 20 hectares which affords habitat to species intolerant of human intrusion; or iv) provide habitat for organisms native to the region recognized as regionally, provincially or nationally significant; or (c) fulfill one of the criteria in Policy 7.C.5(b) and any two of the following: i) contain an unusual diversity of native life forms due to varied topography, microclimates, soils and/or drainage regimes; ii) perform a vital ecological function such as maintaining the hydrological balance over a widespread area by acting as a natural water storage, discharge or recharge area; iii) provide a linking system of relatively undisturbed forest or other natural habitat for the movement of wildlife over a considerable distance; iv) serve as major migratory stop-over or significant over-wintering habitat; or v) contain landforms deemed unusual or particularly representative at the regional scale.
Tags / Keywords
Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.
Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc)
File format of the dataset.
Dataset Size
Dataset size in megabytes.
0.08
Metadata Identifier
Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
Published Date
Published date of the dataset.
2022-08-23
Time Period Data Span (start date)
Start date of the data in the dataset.
Time Period Data Span (end date)
End date of time data in the dataset.
GeoSpatial Area Data Span
A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.
Field Value
Access category
Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
public
License
License used to access the dataset.
License not specified
Limits on use
Limits on use of data.
Location
Location of the dataset.
https://data-cityofcambridge.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/RMW::environmentally-sensitive-policy-area-espa
Data Service
Data service for accessing a dataset.
Owner
Owner of the dataset.
RegionOfWaterloo
Contact Point
Who to contact regarding access?
Region of Waterloo
Contact Point Email
The email to contact regarding access?
Publisher
Publisher of the dataset.
Region of Waterloo
Publisher Email
Email of the publisher.
Author
Author of the dataset.
RegionOfWaterloo
Author Email
Email of the author.
Accessed At
Date the data and metadata was accessed.
2026-05-01
Field Value
Identifier
Unique identifier for the dataset.
d5da37b55cda47059b7f151e621dabc8
Language
Language(s) of the dataset
English
Link to dataset description
A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
https://data-cityofcambridge.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/RMW::environmentally-sensitive-policy-area-espa
Persistent Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
Globally Unique Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
Contains data about individuals
Does the data hold data about individuals?
Contains data about identifiable individuals
Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
Contains Indigenous Data
Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
Portal Type
Platform type of the source portal.
Field Value
Version
Version of the datatset
None
Source
Source of the dataset.
None
Version notes
Version notes about the dataset.
Is version of another dataset
Link to dataset that it is a version of.
Other versions
Link to datasets that are versions of it.
Provenance Text
Provenance Text of the data.
Region of Waterloo
Provenance URL
Provenance URL of the data.
Temporal resolution
Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
GeoSpatial resolution in meters
Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
GeoSpatial resolution (in regions)
Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.
Field Value
Indigenous Community Permission
Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
Community Permission
Community permission (who gave permission).
The Indigenous communities the dataset is about
Indigenous communities from which data is derived.
Field Value
Number of data rows
If tabular dataset, total number of rows.
87
Number of data columns
If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
18
Number of data cells
If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
1566
Number of data relations
If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
Number of entities
If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
Number of data properties
If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
Data quality
Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
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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