Alberta

TOTAL AREA:
662,581 km2

TOTAL Human Footprint:
208,514 km2

Region Overview

During the past century, the availability of natural resources in Alberta has defined human land-use patterns, in both time and space. The province was considered a farming frontier in the late 1800s, and most of the human footprint in central and southern Alberta is the result of this farming legacy. While agriculture remains important, other human land uses, particularly forestry and oil and gas development, have expanded in recent decades into previously undisturbed areas in the Foothills and Boreal Forest Natural Regions. To meet the needs of Alberta’s growing population, urban areas have grown to keep up with industrial growth. As these activities continue, understanding and managing the cumulative effects on Alberta's biodiversity are priorities.

Status

As of 2023, human footprint occupied in the province of Alberta. Agriculture was the dominant human footprint, covering 21.1%—an area four times larger than that of forestry (5.2%), the second-largest human footprint category. The remaining footprint types, in decreasing order of provincial area covered, were energy (1.9%), transportation (1.7%), urban/industrial (1.1%), and human-created water bodies (0.3%).
Human Footprint Type Area (km2) Area (%)
Due to rounding errors and/or small amounts of human footprint that cannot currently be assigned to a reporting category, the sum of the individual human footprint reporting categories may not equal the total human footprint value.

Figure: Status of Human Footprint. Summary of percentage cover of total human footprint broken down by human footprint category in the province of Alberta, circa 2023.

Legend
Figure: Map of Human Footprint. Status of human footprint by sector in the province of Alberta (circa 2023). Click on sectors in the Legend to turn different footprint types on and off. Zoom into map for a detailed view of the distribution of human footprint. This map can be explored in more detail in the ABMI Mapping Portal.

Trend

  • Between 2000 and 2023, the total area of human footprint in the province of Alberta
  • This increase in total human footprint was driven by the expansion of the forestry footprint, which more than doubled in size during this time from 2.2% to 5.2%. However, this increase is lower when forest recovery is considered: forestry footprint increased by 1.9 percentage points (1.9% to 3.8%) when the recovery of regenerating forest is included.
  • The increases in percent area of Alberta covered by the other human footprint categories were all small: energy (+0.6%), urban/industrial (+0.4%), agriculture (+0.3%), transportation (+0.2%), and human-created water bodies (+0.1%).
Human Footprint Type 2000 (km2) 2023 (km2) Change (km2)
Human Footprint Type 2000 (%) 2023 (%) Change (%)

Figure: Trend in Human Footprint. Trend in the percentage area of total human footprint, and by human footprint category in Alberta between 1950 and 2023. Click on the human footprint categories in the legend to turn categories on and off.

Status of Linear Human Footprint

  • Density of linear features was in the province of Alberta.
  • Legacy seismic lines were the dominant line type, representing 44% of all linear footprint, with a density of 1.0 km/km2.
  • Density of roads and pipeline corridors represent 30% and 8% of linear footprint in Alberta, with densities of 0.7 km/km2 and 0.2 km/km2, respectively.
  • Transmission lines and railways had very low densities in Alberta.

Figure: Status of Linear Human Footprint. Density (km/km2) of linear features in the province of Alberta, circa 2023, 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.

Legend
Figure: Map of Linear Human Footprint. Status of linear features, by line type, in the province of Alberta, circa 2023. Click on line types in the Legend to turn on and off. Zoom into map for a detailed view of the distribution of linear features. This map can be explored in more detail in the ABMI Mapping Portal.