TRCA Water Resource System

A Water Resource System (WRS) is a system of groundwater features and areas and surface water features, and their hydrologic functions. Hydrologic functions are the natural processes that provide the water needed to sustain healthy aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and drinking water for humans. Both water quantity and water quality are important to the WRS. The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) has mapped the WRS components across its jurisdiction, which supports the Natural Heritage System (NHS).

Read more about the TRCA WRS here: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/collections/8c517b063c81449d8fba71ca02d4278f?item=6

The WRS system includes: Four Key Hydrologic Features (KHFs): Lakes are bodies of water, such as Lake Ontarion or inland lakes, like Bond Lake in Richmond Hill.
Wetlands are areas that are covered by shallow water seasonally or permanently. The four major types of wetlands in Ontario include marshes, swamps, bogs, and fens. By retaining water and releasing it slowly, wetlands provide many benefits to people and nature, such as helping to improve water quality and reducing flooding.  Given their transient characteristics between land and water, they are considered components of both NHS and WRS.
Permanent streams, or perennial streams, flow year-round because of groundwater flow.  Intermittent streams are small streams that may dry up at certain times of the year, such as during the summer.
Seepage areas and springs are areas where cold, clean groundwater is bubbling up to the surface, as groundwater discharge. This water is usually high quality and important for certain fish communities.
Four Key Hydrologic Areas (KHAs): Water that seeps into the ground can provide an important source of water (groundwater discharge) to aquifers, streams, and wetlands, and is known as groundwater recharge. 
Where rates of recharge are relatively high and are connected to drinking water sources, these areas are called Significant Groundwater Recharge Areas (SGRAs).
Where recharge areas are important to maintaining ecosystem functions of streams and wetlands, these areas are called Ecologically 

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Additional Info

Field Value
Last Updated July 31, 2026, 07:18 (UTC)
Created May 19, 2026, 16:32 (UTC)
Domain / Topic
Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.
Title
Title for the Dataset.
TRCA Water Resource System
Description
A description of the dataset.

A Water Resource System (WRS) is a system of groundwater features and areas and surface water features, and their hydrologic functions. Hydrologic functions are the natural processes that provide the water needed to sustain healthy aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and drinking water for humans. Both water quantity and water quality are important to the WRS. The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) has mapped the WRS components across its jurisdiction, which supports the Natural Heritage System (NHS).

Read more about the TRCA WRS here: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/collections/8c517b063c81449d8fba71ca02d4278f?item=6

The WRS system includes: Four Key Hydrologic Features (KHFs): Lakes are bodies of water, such as Lake Ontarion or inland lakes, like Bond Lake in Richmond Hill.
Wetlands are areas that are covered by shallow water seasonally or permanently. The four major types of wetlands in Ontario include marshes, swamps, bogs, and fens. By retaining water and releasing it slowly, wetlands provide many benefits to people and nature, such as helping to improve water quality and reducing flooding.  Given their transient characteristics between land and water, they are considered components of both NHS and WRS.
Permanent streams, or perennial streams, flow year-round because of groundwater flow.  Intermittent streams are small streams that may dry up at certain times of the year, such as during the summer.
Seepage areas and springs are areas where cold, clean groundwater is bubbling up to the surface, as groundwater discharge. This water is usually high quality and important for certain fish communities.
Four Key Hydrologic Areas (KHAs): Water that seeps into the ground can provide an important source of water (groundwater discharge) to aquifers, streams, and wetlands, and is known as groundwater recharge. 
Where rates of recharge are relatively high and are connected to drinking water sources, these areas are called Significant Groundwater Recharge Areas (SGRAs).
Where recharge areas are important to maintaining ecosystem functions of streams and wetlands, these areas are called Ecologically 
Tags / Keywords
Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.
Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc)
File format of the dataset.
Dataset Size
Dataset size in megabytes.
82832.0
Metadata Identifier
Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
Published Date
Published date of the dataset.
2024-06-12
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.
Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) Open Data Licence v1.0 - Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA)
Limits on use
Limits on use of data.
Location
Location of the dataset.
https://trca-camaps.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/camaps::trca-water-resource-system
Data Service
Data service for accessing a dataset.
Owner
Owner of the dataset.
trca_d.macleod
Contact Point
Who to contact regarding access?
Conservation Ontario
Contact Point Email
The email to contact regarding access?
[email protected]
Publisher
Publisher of the dataset.
Conservation Ontario
Publisher Email
Email of the publisher.
Author
Author of the dataset.
trca_d.macleod
Author Email
Email of the author.
Accessed At
Date the data and metadata was accessed.
2026-07-30
Field Value
Identifier
Unique identifier for the dataset.
9fda1cd9733f410297fb5fcde88b9e9d
Language
Language(s) of the dataset
English
Link to dataset description
A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
https://trca-camaps.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/camaps::trca-water-resource-system
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.
Conservation Ontario
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.
Number of data columns
If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
Number of data cells
If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
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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