Oil Sands Regions:

TOTAL AREA:
4,890 km2

TOTAL Human Footprint:
1,364 km2

Region Overview

The Mineable Oil Sands Region (Mineable Region) as defined by the Government of Alberta is an area located north of Fort McMurray covering approximately 4,800 km2 where surface mining of oil sands occurs. This region contains 20% of the Athabasca Oil Sand Area’s bitumen deposits. Surface mining is the most recognizable form of bitumen extraction; large shovels are used to excavate the oil sands deposits located close to the earth’s surface. In areas where surface mining has occurred, reclaiming the area that has been stripped of soil, wetlands, forests, and all associated biodiversity poses many challenges. Human footprint status is summarized for the Mineable Region.

Status

As of 2023, human footprint occupied in the Mineable Region.

Energy footprint was the dominant human footprint, covering 20.8% of the region, followed by forestry footprint, which covered 4.0%. Transportation and urban/industrial footprint covered 1.4% and 1.3% of the region, respectively. The remaining footprints each covered less than 1.0%.

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 Mineable Region, circa 2023.

Legend
Figure: Map of Human Footprint. Status of human footprint by sector in the Mineable Region (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.

Status of Linear Human Footprint

  • Density of linear features was in the Mineable Region.
  • Roads were the predominant line type, representing 65% of the total length of all lines, with a density of 1.6 km/km2.
  • Other linear features and legacy seismic lines combined represent 31% of linear footprint in the Mineable Region, with densities of 0.6 km/km2 and 0.2 km/km2, respectively.
  • Pipeline corridors and transmission lines had low densities in the Mineable Region.

Figure: Status of Linear Human Footprint. Density (km/km2) of linear features in the Mineable Region, 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 Mineable Region, 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.