Remote Forested Land in Alberta
Phaseview re-creation of the ESRD 2014 land classification. Not an ESRD-published dataset.
The first publicly available GIS re-creation of the four-way land classification (Remote Forested Land, Non-Remote Forested Land, Non-Forested Land, National Park) described in Subsoil Petroleum Hydrocarbon Guidelines for Remote Forested Sites in the Green Area (Alberta ESRD, September 12, 2014). Built by applying the ESRD source-document setback rules to current Government of Alberta source layers (Green/White Area boundaries, provincial roads).
This is a re-creation, not the source dataset
Alberta ESRD has not, to our knowledge, published the four-way classification described in the ESRD 2014 source document as a GIS dataset. The source provides only a small-scale PDF map and a written rules table. This package is a Phaseview re-creation produced by applying those rules to current Government of Alberta source layers (Green/White Area boundaries, provincial roads). For any specific site, the authoritative classification should be determined by a qualified professional against the ESRD source rules and current source data.
Read the source document (Government of Alberta, PDF)See the Difference
What's Included
Polygon coverage of Alberta classified into four zones per ESRD 2014:
- Remote Forested Land —Green Area land outside all exclusion buffers. Sites here qualify for modified Tier 1 petroleum hydrocarbon remediation guidelines.
- Non-Remote Forested Land —Forested Green Area land that falls inside at least one exclusion buffer. Standard guidelines apply.
- Non-Forested Land —White Area (settled / agricultural).
- National Park -- Federal national parks (excluded from the classification).
Setback Rules Applied
Calibrated to the source-document map. Where the map and the literal rule text disagree, we follow the map.
| Buffer From | Distance |
|---|---|
| Fort McMurray (curated point) | 20 km |
| Edge of White Area (non-forested land) | 20 km |
| Each curated buffer settlement (60 points) | 10 km |
| Main provincial roads (centreline) | 2.5 km per side (5 km corridor) |
Algorithm: from the Green Area, subtract National Parks, then subtract the union of all four buffers. The remainder is Remote Forested Land. The intersection of (Green Area minus National Parks) with the union of buffers becomes Non-Remote Forested Land.
Map-vs-rules calibration: the source rule text says "within 5 km of any provincial road", but the source-document map applies a 5 km total corridor (2.5 km on each side of the centreline). We follow the map. Similarly, the rule text refers to "towns, settlements, and Indian Reserves" generically; the map only buffers a specific selection of communities, which we capture in a manually-curated 61-point list.
Field Schema
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| zone_type | Classification: Remote Forested Land, Non-Remote Forested Land, Non-Forested Land, or National Park |
| area_sq_km | Polygon area in square kilometres |
| geometry | MULTIPOLYGON, EPSG:4326 (WGS 84) |
Source Layers
- Government of Alberta Green Area / White Area boundaries
- Government of Alberta provincial roads (numbered highways 1-216 + 500-986)
- Curated settlement point list (Phaseview, derived from the ESRD 2014 source map)
- Curated National Park boundaries (Phaseview, derived from federal NP boundaries with manual edits to match the source map)
Vintage of each source layer at the time of the current release is documented in the version history below.
Manual overrides (v1.2+): three small Non-Forested Land polygons that the source map shows as forested have been reclassified as Remote Forested Land — two near Sandy Lake / Desmarais and one near Fort Chipewyan.
Download
Polygon classification produced by Phaseview from Government of Alberta source layers per the rules in the ESRD 2014 source document. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence — Alberta.
- Phaseview re-creation, not official ESRD GIS
- Not for sole regulatory or remediation use
- Provided “as-is” without warranty
- Boundaries depend on source-layer vintage
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the ESRD 2014 Remote Forested Sites classification?
In 2014 Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development (ESRD) issued the Subsoil Petroleum Hydrocarbon Guidelines for Remote Forested Sites in the Green Area. The document defines a four-way land classification (Remote Forested Land, Non-Remote Forested Land, Non-Forested Land, National Park). Sites that qualify as "Remote Forested Land" are eligible for modified Tier 1 petroleum hydrocarbon remediation guidelines that recognise lower exposure risk in remote settings.
Did Alberta ESRD release this as GIS data?
Not to our knowledge. The ESRD 2014 source document includes a small-scale PDF map and a written rules table, but no GIS shapefile or geodatabase has been published by ESRD (or its successor ministries, Alberta Environment and Parks and Alberta Environment and Protected Areas). This package is a Phaseview re-creation produced by applying those rules to current Government of Alberta source layers.
How was the polygon classification computed?
In PostGIS: starting from the Alberta Green Area, we subtract national parks, then subtract the union of four exclusion buffers (20 km from Fort McMurray, 20 km from the White Area edge, 10 km from each of 60 curated buffer settlements, and 2.5 km on each side of the main provincial road centrelines -- a 5 km corridor). What remains is Remote Forested Land. The intersection of the forested area with the buffer union becomes Non-Remote Forested Land.
Why are the road and settlement buffers different from what the source rule text says?
The source document includes both written rules and a small-scale map, and they disagree in two places. (1) The rule text says "within 5 km of any provincial road"; the map applies a 5 km TOTAL corridor (2.5 km per side of the centreline). (2) The rule text refers generically to "towns, settlements, and Indian Reserves"; the map only buffers a specific selection of communities, not every entry in the provincial municipal-areas layer. Earlier v1.0 of this dataset followed the rule text literally and overshot in both cases. v1.1 follows the map. Phaseview has emailed Alberta Environment and Protected Areas (Lands Policy and Program Branch) and the AER for an authoritative interpretation; this section will be updated when we hear back.
Can I use this for regulatory or remediation decisions?
Not on its own. The dataset is a derived re-creation. The authoritative classification for any specific site must be determined by an appropriately qualified person against the rules in the source document and the current source data. This dataset is intended as a planning aid and a starting point.
Why might this disagree with the source map?
A few reasons: the source PDF map is small-scale (1:5,000,000) and has been rasterised, so its visual boundaries are coarse; town footprints, road networks and reserve boundaries change over time, so a re-creation built from current source layers will differ from a 2014 cartographic snapshot; and small disagreements at the edge of buffers are inevitable. We list source-layer vintage in the version history.
What formats are included?
ESRI Shapefile (.shp), OGC GeoPackage (.gpkg), and RFC 7946 GeoJSON (.geojson), plus a QGIS style file (.qml) that applies the Phaseview 4-zone colour scheme, and README + LICENSE documentation. CRS is EPSG:4326 (WGS 84).
Version History
1.2.2· 2026-05-04· 23 featuresCurrent
- National Park polygons updated with a second round of manual boundary refinements (+4.4 sq km vs v1.2.1; 55,062 -> 55,066 sq km). Remote Forested Land and Non-Remote Forested Land are essentially unchanged (boundary edits did not intersect with the rest of the classification).
1.2.1· 2026-05-04· 23 features
- Bug fix to v1.2's three-polygon reclassification: the override is now applied at the input level (subtract from White Area, add to Green Area) before the buffer logic runs, instead of only patching the output. Previously a 20 km Non-Remote Forested ring was still being drawn around where the three small polygons used to sit, because the White Area edge buffer was computed using the unmodified White Area input.
- Net effect vs v1.2: Remote Forested Land grows by 3,308 sq km (245,774 -> 249,082 sq km), Non-Remote Forested Land shrinks by 3,308 sq km (106,678 -> 103,370 sq km). The 3 reclassified polygons are now correctly absorbed into the surrounding Remote Forested area (no buffer ring around them), unless an unrelated road/settlement buffer happens to overlap.
- Implementation note: the 3 polygons can still pick up Non-Remote classification if a curated settlement, Fort Mac, or provincial-road buffer covers them -- the override only removes the White Area edge buffer from contributing.
1.2.0· 2026-05-04· 22 features
- National Park polygons replaced with manually-edited geometries (boundary refinements; total area 54,946 -> 55,062 sq km, +0.2%). Source: a curated edit of v1.0 polygons performed in QGIS, now loaded into reconnaissance.curated_national_parks.
- Three small Non-Forested Land polygons were reclassified as Remote Forested Land per the source map: two near Sandy Lake / Desmarais (40 sq km + 20 sq km) and one near Fort Chipewyan (1.9 sq km). These are areas where the underlying provincial Green/White zone data and the source-document map disagree -- we follow the map.
- Known issue (fixed in v1.2.1): the reclassification was applied only at the output level, not the input level, so a 20 km Non-Remote Forested ring was still being drawn around where the three polygons used to sit.
- Total polygon count dropped from 25 to 22 (3 Non-Forested rows dissolved into Remote Forested). Remote Forested Land grew by 61.6 sq km (245,713 -> 245,774 sq km).
1.1.0· 2026-05-04· 25 features
- Calibration pass: rules-vs-map ambiguities in the source document were resolved in favour of the source map. As a result, Remote Forested Land grew by ~11% (221,289 -> 245,713 sq km) and Non-Remote Forested Land shrank by ~19% (131,102 -> 106,679 sq km).
- Provincial road buffer halved from 5 km per side to 2.5 km per side. The source document text says 'within 5 km of any provincial road' but the source-document map applies a 5 km TOTAL corridor width (2.5 km on each side of the road centreline), per a georeference of the source PNG.
- Settlement and reserve buffers are now driven by a curated 61-point list (reconnaissance.curated_buffer_settlements) reflecting what's actually drawn on the source map -- not by the full municipal_areas + indian_reserves tables. 60 points get a 10 km buffer; the Fort McMurray point (id=101) gets a 20 km buffer.
- Indian Reserves buffer step removed (subsumed into the curated point list above).
- Fort McMurray now derives from the curated point at (56.7261N, 111.4573W) instead of the municipal_areas Urban Service Area polygon. Buffer area ~1,249 sq km matches pi*r^2 for r=20 km.
1.0.0· 2026-05-04· 25 features
- Initial public release. Polygon re-creation of the four-way land classification (Remote Forested Land, Non-Remote Forested Land, Non-Forested Land, National Park) described in the Government of Alberta ESRD 2014 Subsoil Petroleum Hydrocarbon Guidelines for Remote Forested Sites in the Green Area.
- Setbacks applied per the literal text of the source document: 20 km from Fort McMurray Urban Service Area, 20 km from White Area edge, 10 km from Indian Reserves, 10 km from other towns/settlements, 5 km from main provincial roads.
- This is a Phaseview re-creation, not a Government of Alberta dataset.
Corrections welcome. Email [email protected].
Re-creation of rules from the ESRD 2014 Subsoil Petroleum Hydrocarbon Guidelines for Remote Forested Sites in the Green Area. For the authoritative source, consult the original ESRD 2014 document and the underlying Government of Alberta source layers.