Land-use Planning Regions:
TOTAL AREA:
93,212 km2
TOTAL Human Footprint:
8,585 km2
Region Overview
The Lower Athabasca Region encompasses an area of 93,212 km2 or 14% of the province in northeastern Alberta. This region largely overlaps the Central Mixedwood Natural Subregion, which is characterized by a mix of Trembling Aspen dominated deciduous forests, Trembling Aspen-White Spruce mixedwood forests, and White Spruce-Jack Pine coniferous stands in the uplands, and wet, poorly drained fens and bogs in lowland areas. Energy development in the Athabasca and Cold Lake Oil Sands Areas and forestry are the two dominant land use activities. These land uses along with mineral extraction, agriculture, and tourism, have led to an increase in human disturbance across the landbase. Human footprint status and trends are summarized for the Lower Athabasca Region.
Status
As of 2021, human footprint occupied 9.2% of the Lower Athabasca Region. Agriculture (2.9%), forestry (2.6%), and energy (2.5%) footprints covered similar areas. The remaining footprint types each covered < 1.0% of the region.
| 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 Lower Athabasca Region, circa 2021.
Trend
- Between 2000 and 2021, the total area of human footprint in the Lower Athabasca Region
- Between 2000 and 2021, the total area of human footprint in the Lower Athabasca Region increased by 3.5 percentage points, from 5.7% to 9.2%.
- This increase in human footprint was driven by the expansion of the energy footprint, which increased by 1.4 percentage points, from 1.1% to 2.5%. The increase in forestry footprint was very similar: from 1.3% to 2.6%. This increase in forestry footprint is lower when forest recovery is considered: forestry footprint increased by 0.6 percentage points (1.2% to 1.8%) when recovery of regenerating forest is included.
- The remaining human footprint categories each had increases of < 1.0 percentage point between 2000 and 2021.
| 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 Lower Athabasca 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 in the Lower Athabasca Region.
- Density of linear features was 2.1 km/km2 in the Lower Athabasca Region.
- Seismic lines, with a density of 1.7 km/km2, were the predominant line type, representing 81.0% of linear footprint in the region.
- Density of pipelines (0.2 km/km2) and roads (0.2 km/km2) combined represented 19.0% of linear footprint in the Lower Athabasca Region.
- Transmission lines and railways had very low densities in the Lower Athabasca Region.
Figure: Status of Linear Human Footprint. Density (km/km2) of linear features in the Lower Athabasca 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 that linear density reporting excludes seismic line types that are not consistently represented provincially, including: Seismic Line of Sight, Low Impact Seismic, Seismic Conventional (Modern), Seismic Avoidance, and unconfirmed seismic lines.