Oil Sands Regions:
TOTAL AREA:
93,259 km2
TOTAL Human Footprint:
9,326 km2
Region Overview
The Athabasca Oil Sands Area (OSA) encompasses an area of 93,259 km2 (14% of the province) in northeastern Alberta. This region is situated in the Boreal Forest Natural Region, which is characterized by a mosaic of upland forests composed of Trembling Aspen, White Spruce, and Jack Pine, and lowland forests composed of Black Spruce, Larch, and open wetlands. Multiple ice ages have created a flattened and rolling landscape dotted with numerous shallow lakes and wetlands connected by meandering streams, which largely feed into the Athabasca River system. The Athabasca OSA hosts the largest known deposit of crude bitumen in the world; as a result, the energy industry dominates the economy. However, conventional oil and gas development and forestry also have important roles. Human footprint status and trends are summarized for the Athabasca OSA.
Status
Forestry was the dominant human footprint, covering 5.2% of the region, followed by energy footprint, which covered 2.7%. The remaining footprint types each covered <1.0% of the Athabasca OSA.
| 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 Athabasca Oil Sands Area, circa 2023.
Trend
- Between 2000 and 2023, the total area of human footprint in the Athabasca Oil Sands Area
- This increase in human footprint was driven by the expansion of forestry footprint, which more than doubled in size during this time from 2.3% to 5.2%. However, this increase in forestry footprint is lower when forest recovery is considered: forestry footprint increased from 2.1% to 3.8% when recovery of regenerating forest is included.
- The increases in percent area of the Athabasca Oil Sands Area covered by the other human footprint categories were all small: agriculture (+0.2%), energy (+1.2%), urban/industrial (+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 the Athabasca Oil Sands Area between 1950 and 2023. 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 Athabasca Oil Sands Area.
- Legacy seismic lines were the predominant line type, representing 51% of the total length of all lines, with a density of 1.0 km/km2.
- Roads (0.5 km/km2) and other linear features (0.3 km/km2) combined represented 38% of linear footprint in the Athabasca OSA.
- Transmission lines and railways had very low densities in the Athabasca OSA.
Figure: Status of Linear Human Footprint. Density (km/km2) of linear features in the Athabasca Oil Sands Area, 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.