Oil Sands Regions:
TOTAL AREA:
140,213 km2
TOTAL Human Footprint:
21,368 km2
Region Overview
The Oil Sands Region (OSR) is the aggregate of three recognized administrative units—the Athabasca, Cold Lake, and Peace River Oil Sands Areas—that together represent 140,000 km2 or 21% of the province’s land area. This region almost entirely overlays the Boreal Forest Natural Region which overlaps 97% of the landbase; the Parkland, Foothills, and Canadian Shield Natural Regions cover a very small area of the region. The energy sector is a major economic driver in the region as it contains 95% of Canada’s proven oil reserves. This area also has a robust forest industry with much of the region managed for timber production. The conventional natural gas industry has also developed alongside the oil sands industry, while agriculture is the dominant land use in some parts. Managing the cumulative effects of all land-use activities is a key management challenge in the OSR. Human footprint status and trends are summarized for the OSR.
Status
As of 2021, human footprint occupied 16.5% of the Oil Sands Region. Agriculture was the dominant human footprint, covering 7.9% of the region, followed by forestry (4.2%) and energy (2.6%) footprints. The remaining footprints each occupied <1.0% of the OSR.
| Human Footprint Type | Area (km2) | Area (%) |
|---|
Figure: Status of Human Footprint. Summary of percentage cover of total human footprint broken down by human footprint category in the Oil Sands Region, circa 2021.
Trend
- Between 2000 and 2021, the total area of human footprint in the Oil Sands Region increased by 4.5 percentage points, from 12.0% to 16.5%.
- This increase in human footprint was driven by the expansion of forestry footprint, which more than doubled in size during this time from 1.9% to 4.2%. However, this increase in forestry footprint is lower when forest recovery is considered: forestry footprint increased from 1.7% to 2.9% when recovery of regenerating forest is included.
- The increases in percent area of the Oil Sands Region covered by the other human footprint categories were all small: agriculture (+0.3%), energy (+1.2%), urban/industrial (+0.4%), transportation (+0.2%), and human-created water bodies (+0.1%).
| Human Footprint Type | 2000 (km2) | 2021 (km2) | Change (km2) |
|---|
| Human Footprint Type | 2000 (%) | 2021 (%) | Change (%) |
|---|
Figure: Trend in Human Footprint. Trend in the percentage area of total human footprint, and by human footprint category in the Oil Sands Region between 2000 and 2021. Click on the entries in the legend to turn human footprint categories on and off.
Status of Linear Human Footprint
- Density of linear features was 2.9 km/km2 in the Oil Sands Region.
- Conventional seismic lines were the predominant line type, representing 79.3% of the total length of all lines, with a density of 2.3 km/km2.
- Pipelines and roads combined represented 20.1% of linear footprint in the Oil Sands Region, with densities of 0.3 km/km2 each.
- Transmission lines and railways had very low densities.
| Type | Density (km/km2) |
|---|
Figure: Status of Linear Human Footprint. Density (km/km2) of linear features in the Oil Sands Region, circa 2021, overall and broken down by linear feature type. Hover over bar or legend to view density of specific linear feature type. Please note low impact seismic lines are not included in the summary of linear footprint density.