Southern Ontario Land Resource Information System (SOLRIS) land use data

Description

The Southern Ontario Land Resource Information System (SOLRIS) is a landscape-level inventory of natural, rural and urban areas. Version 1.1 covering the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) was released in 2007. Version 1.2 (JPG) was released in November - December 2007. In April 2008, the Geospatial Centre received updates to version 1.2, with landcover coverage for all of Southwestern Ontario, Central Ontario, and Eastern Ontario. In 2019, the Geospatial Centre received version 3.0, data that covers the date ranges from 2000-2015 in Ecoregions 7E, 6E and 5E (Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe Study Area and an Eastern Ontario extension to the Forest Resources Inventory boundary).

SOLRIS was developed to support landscape-scale planning initiatives in southern Ontario such as source water protection, biodiversity conservation, natural spaces, and state of resources reporting. The SOLRIS inventory is a compilation of data from various sources including topographic maps, aerial photos and satellite imagery. Computer modelling, visual interpretation and field validation were used to create a seamless inventory for Southern Ontario.

There are a total of 23 categories in the SOLRIS Data; examples include: forests, built-up areas and plantations. The following categories are available:

Alvar
Bog
Built-up area: impervious/ pervious
Extraction
Fen
Forest: coniferous/ deciduous/ mixed
Hedge rows
Marsh

Open cliff and talus
Open water
Plantations" tree/ cultivated
Swamp
Tall grass: savannah/ woodland/ open prairie
Transportation

Spatial reference and data type

This resource is available in shapefile and Esri grid formats. The shape file coordinate system is in MNR Lambert Conformal Conic. Esri grid coordinate system is in Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) zone 17, NAD 83 and UTM zone 18, NAD83. Other data formats can be accommodated, as the Geospatial Centre has access to a number of conversion utilities.

Data access

In order to access these data sets, please visit the Geospatial Centre reference desk during reference hours. Library reference staff are available to provide further information about these data sets and to deliver data upon request. Under the terms of the library's license agreement, these data sets are for use by students, faculty, and staff at the University of Waterloo only.

Data manipulation

There are public workstations in the Geospatial Centre that provide access to Geographic Information System (GIS) software, program extensions and data manipulation utilities. Patrons may use the GIS software in the library to view and manipulate the data. UWaterloo faculty, students and staff may copy these data to other media.

Data output

These data may be exported from the GIS software as a bitmapped image (e.g., jpg).

Use restrictions/licensing/copyright

These data are provided for personal use for academic, research, and/or teaching purposes. A data release agreement must be agreed to before these licensed data can be released. The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources must be acknowledged on any derivative product, whether printed or electronic, including for example, a printed map, a raster or vector graphic, a web-based application, etc. Patrons are advised to fully respect the provisions of Canada's Copyright Act as well as terms and conditions imposed by the data provider.