Guidance on submitting geospatial data

PDF version - 233 kb

June 8, 2020

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• What should be submitted?
  • Detailed Project Description
  • Impact Statement
• Submission requirements

Introduction

Under section 6 of the Information and Management of Time Limits Regulations, any information that is required to be submitted by a proponent under the Impact Assessment Act must be in a machine-readable format.

The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) requires proponents to provide electronic geospatial data files for site maps provided in the Detailed Project Description. Additionally, geospatial data files may be required in the Tailored Impact Statement Guidelines issued to proponents at the end of the planning phase. These files are to be submitted along with the Impact Statement. The following document provides guidance on submitting electronic geospatial data files to IAAC during the impact assessment process.

What should be submitted?

Detailed Project Description

Proponents are required to submit electronic geospatial data files for the site maps detailing the project’s proposed general location and the spatial relationship of the project components, which were included in the Detailed Project Description.

This would include (where applicable) geospatial data showing:

• Project footprint, including associated activities (such as work camps, aggregate sources, material storage location, waste water or storm water ponds, material storage location);
• Route for linear projects, or components to be built as part of the project, including; pipelines, transmission lines, roads (permanent / temporary), rail; and
• Marine shipping routes.

The geospatial data must include any options that the proponent is considering, in relation to proposed location, routes or components.

For linear projects under the Canadian Energy Regulator Act, the proponent may provide information on the specific proposed route, or on the corridor within which a specific right-of-way will be determined at a later date.

Proponents are not required to submit the electronic geospatial data files for background layers from publicly available sources that show, for example:

• Federal, Provincial or Indigenous lands
• Locations of communities or other defined areas;
• Existing provincial or municipal roads or other linear projects; or,
• Natural features (e.g. water bodies, forest cover).

Proponents may, however, choose to provide this additional information to IAAC, for release to the public, under the terms of the Open Government Licence – Canada.

Impact Statement

Where information is required or is provided as a map in the Impact Statement, the proponent must also provide the Agency with the corresponding electronic geospatial data file(s), which may include:

• Maps related to the project location.
• Baseline data or data used in analysis, where shown on a map,
• Results of analysis, where shown on a map.

If the TISGs require submission of other data types not covered in this guidance (e.g. non-geospatial data file or database, analytical script or workflow), please contact IAAC’s regional office in your area for more guidance.

Submission requirements

• Proponents are required to provide site maps to IAAC as electronic geospatial data file(s). This would include:
  • Point, line or polygon data layer - as appropriate to the type of project - preferably as shape file.
  • Raster data types such as raw satellite imagery as supplied in the vendor specific format.
• Proponents are strongly encouraged to make data available in one of the following data projections:
  • Lambert Conic Conformal (EPSG: 3979);
  • Geographic NAD83 CSRS;
  • The Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM);
  • Web Mercator WGS84 (EPSG: 3857).
• Proponents are strongly encouraged to select a projection that is best suited to the geographic region and / or scale of the dataset. Please note the Web Mercator WGS84 projection is not suitable for areas in the far North (e.g. north of the 60^th parallel).
• Proponents must provide metadata or "information about the data" compliant with ISO 19115: 2003 (19139) standard for each data layer including, at a minimum, the following information:
  • Title
  • Abstract or summary of what is contained in the data layer
  • Source of the data
  • Date of creation for the data
  • The point of contact and originator
  • Confirmation that there are no restrictions or limitations on sharing the data
• IAAC intends to make the geospatial data files available to the public under the terms of the Open Government Licence – Canada. By providing data to IAAC, the proponent is confirming that:
  • There are no known legal, licensing, or copyright restrictions to prevent the data or information from being released by IAAC under the terms of the Open Government Licence – Canada.
  • The data or information resource does not contain any:
    • personal information about yourself or others, such as home addresses, telephone numbers, or medical history;
    • information that could cause economic harm or advantage to a commercial third party, such as confidential business information, or manufacturing or trade secrets;
    • information provided in confidence by a province or international government;
    • information that could affect the security of an individual;
    • information that could affect the integrity and availability of data, systems and facilities; and
    • confidential Indigenous knowledge
  • The data or information can be released without a fee.
  • IAAC has permission to publish the data or information resource under the Open Government Licence – Canada.

If the proponent has concerns about potential data restrictions, they should contact IAAC.

Proponents must complete the Geospatial Data Submission Requirements Checklist and include it in the data submission via the proponent portal

Files should be zipped, given an appropriately descriptive title and submitted through the proponent portal.