Land-use Planning Regions:
TOTAL AREA:
74,270 km2
TOTAL Human Footprint:
24,695 km2
Region Overview
The Upper Peace Region covers an area greater than 74,000 km2 in the central-northwest portion of Alberta and includes four of Alberta's six natural regions: Foothills (29%), Rocky Mountain (18%), Boreal Forest (11%), and Parkland (5%). The topography and ecosystems of this land base are diverse. Forests cover large areas in the south and north, while centrally located parkland habitats support an array of species typically found in prairie ecosystems located in more southern regions of the province. The Upper Peace Region is one of North America's most northerly agricultural zones; approximately 34% of the landbase is used for growing crops and feeding livestock. Forestry and oil and gas are also important industries. Human footprint status and trends are summarized for the Upper Peace Region.
Status
As of 2021, human footprint occupied 36.0% of the Upper Peace Region. Agriculture was the dominant human footprint, covering 20.1%, followed by forestry footprint (10.8%), energy (2.1%), transportation (1.6%), and urban/industrial (1.3%). Human-created water bodies 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 Upper Peace Region, circa 2021.
Trend
- Between 2000 and 2021, the total area of human footprint in the Upper Peace Region increased by 8.4 percentage points, from 27.6% to 36.0%.
- This increase in human footprint was driven by the expansion of forestry footprint, which more than doubled in size during this time from 4.6% to 10.8%. However, this increase in forestry footprint is lower when forest recovery is considered: forestry footprint increased from 3.9% to 8.0% when recovery of regenerating forest is included.
- The remaining human footprint categories each had small increases of < 1.0 percentage point between 2000 and 2021, with energy, urban/industrial and agriculture footprints showing the next largest increases at 0.7, 0.7, and 0.6 percentage points, respectively.
| Human Footprint Type | 2000 (km2) | 2021 (km2) | Change (km2) |
|---|
| Human Footprint Type | 2000 (%) | 2021 (%) | Change (%) |
|---|
Figure: Trend in Human Footprint. Trend in the percentage area of total human footprint, and by human footprint category in the Upper Peace Region between 2000 and 2021. 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 3.2 km/km2 in the Upper Peace Region.
- Conventional seismic lines, with a density of 2.1 km/km2, were the predominant line type, representing 65.6% of linear footprint in the region.
- Roads (0.6 km/km2) and pipelines (0.5 km/km2) were also common linear features, representing 18.8% and 15.6% of linear footprint, respectively, in the Upper Peace Region.
- Transmission lines and railways had very low densities.
| Type | Density (km/km2) |
|---|
Figure: Status of Linear Human Footprint. Density (km/km2) of linear features in the Upper Peace Region, circa 2021, overall and broken down by linear feature type. Hover over bar or legend to view density of specific linear feature type. Please note low impact seismic lines are not included in the summary of linear footprint density.