Land-use Planning Regions:
TOTAL AREA:
192,198 km2
TOTAL Human Footprint:
18,932 km2
Region Overview
The Lower Peace Region, at 192,198 km2, is the largest of the seven land-use regions. The Lower Peace Region covers 29% of Alberta's total area and is located in the province’s northwest corner. This region overlaps almost entirely with the Boreal Forest Natural Region, which is characterized by vast areas of coniferous, mixedwood, and deciduous forests; the Foothills and Parkland Natural Regions occupy small pockets in the south. Forestry is an important industry in this landbase with almost half of the region coinciding with Forest Management Agreement (FMA) areas. Wellsites and other energy infrastructure are also common as two oil sands areas—Peace River and Athabasca—overlap with this region. The Caribou Mountains, located in the region’s north, are a unique landform in the shape of a low, saucer-like plateau left unglaciated in the last ice age; as a result, these mountains contain remnant communities of lichens, vascular plants, and mosses not found in the surrounding areas. Human footprint status and trends are summarized for the Lower Peace Region.
Status
Forestry was the dominant human footprint, covering 4.4% of the region, followed by agriculture (3.1%) and energy (1.4%) footprints. 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 Peace Region, circa 2023.
Trend
- Between 2000 and 2023, the total area of human footprint in the Lower Peace Region
- This increase in human footprint was driven by the expansion of forestry footprint, which more than doubled in size during this time from 1.7% to 4.4%. However, this increase in forestry footprint is lower when forest recovery is considered: forestry footprint increased by 1.8 percentage points (1.5% to 3.3%) when recovery of regenerating forest is included.
- The remaining human footprint categories each had small 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 Peace 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 Peace Region.
- Legacy seismic lines, with a density of 1.7 km/km2, were the predominant line type, representing 75% of linear footprint.
- Density of roads (0.3 km/km2) and other linear features (0.2 km/km2) combined represented 20% of linear footprint in the Lower Peace Region.
- Transmission lines and railways had very low densities.
Figure: Status of Linear Human Footprint. Density (km/km2) of linear features in the Lower Peace 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.