Land-use Planning Regions:
TOTAL AREA:
93,212 km2
TOTAL Human Footprint:
8,697 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
Agriculture (2.9%), forestry (2.8%), and energy (2.3%) 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 2023.
Trend
- Between 2000 and 2023, the total area of human footprint in the Lower Athabasca Region
- This increase in human footprint was driven by the expansion of the forestry footprint, which increased by 1.5 percentage points, from 1.3% to 2.8%. This increase in forestry footprint is lower when forest recovery is considered: forestry footprint increased by 0.8 percentage points (1.2% to 2.0) when recovery of regenerating forest is included.
- The increase in energy footprint was similar at 1.2 percentage points, from 1.2% to 2.3%. The remaining human footprint categories each had increases of < 1.0 percentage point between 2000 and 2023.
| 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 Lower Athabasca Region 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 Lower Athabasca Region.
- Legacy seismic lines, with a density of 0.5 km/km2, were the predominant line type, representing 37% of linear footprint in the region.
- Density of roads (0.4 km/km2) and other linear features (0.3 km/km2) combined represented 51% 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 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.