What's New

Every year, floods affect populations across Canada. That's why the team of specialists at Natural Resources Canada update the Historical Flood Events layer with the most recent data available in the media. The addition of major floods, such as those that occurred in Manitoba in 2022, makes it possible to track the history of flooding since 1696. In all, 104 new events between June 2021 and June 2023 have been added. In total, over 7,400 events can be viewed via an interactive map.

The Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation (CCMEO) is excited to announce the new Canadian Hydrospatial Network (CHN). This initiative stands as an improvement from the National Hydrographic Network (NHN), bringing in a new era for high-resolution, analysis-ready hydrographic data in Canada.

The National Elevation Data Strategy team has increased its production rate. Our detailed 3D products cover 32% more area since the last publication in October 2023!

The National Elevation Data Strategy team carried out an analysis of the High Resolution Digital Elevation Model (HRDEM) product to improve its usability while optimizing its maintenance. The following updates will take effect on June 19th, 2024:

• Reduced duplication of UTM projections by project
• Elimination of Color Relief Map and Color Shaded Relief Map

Our elevation datasets are growing! This very detailed 3D information provides essential foundational geospatial data for many government projects and priorities, like flood mapping, forest inventories, climate change monitoring, and urban management.

The Historical Flood Events layer has been updated with precipitation statistics, thanks to the efforts of Natural Resources Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada. This upgrade affects 26% of the events in the data layer and provides a unique perspective on the amount of precipitation associated with specific floods.

Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) is pleased to announce the release of a new product called LiDAR Point Clouds. The product is a part of the CanElevation Series created to support the National Elevation Data Strategy led by NRCan and distributed under the Open Government License.

With scattered publication records stretching back to 1696, it has been labour intensive to search publications to determine historical flood events for a specific region – until now. With over 1400 flood events documented in over 7000 locations, the NRCan Historical Flood Events data layer provides an accessible way to view the who, what, when, and where of historical flood events in Canada.

Over 186,000 km² of LiDAR-derived elevation data are released on Open Maps to complement the HRDEM and HRDEM Mosaic products. In terms of area covered, this is the largest release of LiDAR-derived data to date by NRCan!