North America Human Impact on Marine Ecosystems

Overview This map layer prepared by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) shows the direct influence of humans on terrestrial ecosystems across North America. The Human Influence Index (HII) is based on population density, built-up areas, roads, railroads, navigable rivers, coastlines, land use/land cover, and nighttime lights. HII values range from 0 to 64, with 0 representing no human influence and 64 representing maximum human influence, based on all eight measures of human influence. The data layer was compiled by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN).  Geographic Coverage The coverage spans terrestrial areas of North America, including Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Data Sources and Licensing Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). The Last of the Wild, Version Two. 2005. Global human influence index (HII). Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN). The data is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), allowing redistribution and adaptation with appropriate attribution. Update frequency: Not planned Limitations of use: Acknowledgment of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) is appreciated in products derived from these data. Vintage: 2005 Applications (Intended Use) Conservation planning and identification of low-impact/wilderness areas. Assessing human pressure on biomes and ecoregions across North America. Supporting natural resource management and sustainability research. Cross-border environmental cooperation and policy-making among North American nations. Files Download

Overview This layer shows North America classified into "anthropogenic biomes," also known as "anthromes" or "human biomes." Biomes are major global ecosystem types, characterized by particular climate and soil conditions and distinctive forms of life adapted to these conditions. Incorporating the significant role of humans in altering ecosystems, this layer offers a new way of classifying the parts of the earth in which life exists.  Geographic Coverage The coverage spans the entire North American continent, including Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Data Sources and Licensing Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), based on the anthropogenic biomes classification developed by Erle C. Ellis and Navin Ramankutty in 2008, Putting people in the map: Anthropogenic biomes of the world. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 6, doi:10.1890/070062. The data is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), allowing redistribution and adaptation, including for commercial purposes, with appropriate attribution. Update frequency: Not planned Limitations of use: None. Acknowledgment of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation and/or Ellis & Ramankutty (2008) would be appreciated in products derived from these data. Vintage: 2008 Applications (Intended Use) Research on human influence on terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity. Land use and land cover analysis integrating human population patterns. Conservation planning that accounts for the degree of human alteration of natural systems. Integration with other thematic layers in the North American Environmental Atlas for comprehensive continental analysis. Files Download

Overview This layer maps the ecological scorecard sites for marine protected areas (MPAs) across North America as part of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) North American Environmental Atlas. To assess the environmental conditions of MPAs, experts developed an Ecological Assessment Scorecard methodology that distills large amounts of complex technical and traditional/local ecological knowledge about MPA conditions. These scorecards are an easy yet powerful tool for MPA managers to share evidence-based ecological information about water, habitat, and living resources. The scorecard for each MPA is based on standard questions about three key themes (water, habitat, and living resources) to describe environmental health. Conditions for each ecosystem element addressed by the questions are defined on a five-point scale, ranging from superior (best it could be) to critical (worst it could be). Trends in conditions are likewise defined in five categories, ranging from rapidly improving to rapidly diminishing (likely to reach a different state in five years), with stable indicating conditions unlikely to change beyond normal variation. Geographic Coverage This layer covers the ecological scorecard sites for marine protected areas in the Bering Sea to Baja California (B2B) region, spanning Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Data Sources and Licensing Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) and NOAA Marine Protected Areas Center. This material is licensed under CC BY 4.0, allowing non-exclusive rights to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, including for commercial purposes, so long as attribution is given to the creator. Update frequency: Irregular Limitations of use: None. Acknowledgement of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation and NOAA Marine Protected Areas Center would be appreciated in products derived from these data. Vintage: 2008 Applications (Intended Use) Sharing evidence-based ecological information about water, habitat, and living resources conditions within marine protected areas. Supporting MPA managers in tracking ecological conditions and trends over time. Research, education, monitoring, and reporting on the ecological health of North American marine protected areas. Reference framework for comparing environmental conditions across MPAs in the Bering Sea to Baja California (B2B) region. Integration with other thematic layers in the North American Environmental Atlas for comprehensive continental analysis. Supporting cross-border environmental cooperation and policy-making among North American nations. Files Download

Overview This layer shows the distribution of salt marsh habitats across North America. It forms part of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) Blue Carbon mapping series, which documents the coastal ecosystems (salt marshes, mangroves, and seagrasses) that capture and store carbon along the North American coastline. Salt marshes occupy the intertidal zones of sheltered marine and estuarine coastlines, and support estuarine food webs by providing nesting, nursery, and feeding habitat for birds, fish, molluscs, and crustaceans. The extent of salt marshes in North America was estimated by combining eight source datasets produced with different methods, spanning global, national, and regional coverage and derived from both ground surveys and remotely sensed imagery. Where sources overlapped, priority was assigned following criteria defined by a trinational panel of eleven experts, convened through three national workshops led by the Mexican Carbon Program, giving precedence to more recent, finer-resolution, better-documented, and more locally specific data. The dataset is intended to support estimates of blue carbon sink potential and to serve as a standardized, publicly available input for carbon budget analyses. Documentation of every source and the preprocessing applied to each is provided in the accompanying Blue Carbon Map source data notes 2021. Geographic Coverage This layer covers the coastal zones of North America, including Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Data Sources and Licensing This dataset integrates the Global Distribution of Saltmarshes (UNEP-WCMC), the United States National Wetlands Inventory, Version 2 (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), C-CAP salt marsh habitat data for New Hampshire and Rhode Island (NOAA and RIGIS), the Nova Scotia Forest Inventory, the British Columbia ShoreZone Observed Habitat Polygons, the Prince Edward Island 2000 Wetlands Inventory, the New Brunswick Hydrographic Network, and the St. Lawrence wetlands classification (Environment and Climate Change Canada). This material is licensed under CC BY 4.0, allowing non-exclusive rights to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, including for commercial purposes, so long as attribution is given to the creator. Update frequency: Irregular Limitations of use: None. Acknowledgement of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation would be appreciated in products derived from these data. Vintage: 2021 Applications (Intended Use) Estimating blue carbon sink potential across North American coastal ecosystems. Providing a standardized, publicly available input dataset for carbon budget analyses. Coastal habitat conservation planning and marine protected area management. Assessing coastal ecosystem vulnerability and adaptation capacity in the face of relative sea level rise. Integration with other thematic layers in the North American Environmental Atlas for comprehensive continental analysis. Supporting cross-border environmental cooperation and policy-making among North American nations. Files Download

Overview This Feature Service presents comprehensive bathymetric data for ocean areas within North America, resulting from a collaborative effort between the national atlas programs of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, in partnership with the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). The service provides standardized geospatial data at a 1:10,000,000 scale, forming part of the North American Environmental Atlas. Feature Layers NA Bathymetry Lines: This layer depicts isobaths, or lines of equal ocean depth, providing detailed measurements at key depths including sea level (coastline), 200, 500, and 2500 meters. It helps visualize depth contours relevant for oceanographic studies and marine navigation. NA Bathymetry Polygons: This layer complements the lines by delineating polygonal areas that represent depth ranges such as 0-200, 200-500, 500-2500, and depths greater than 2500 meters. These polygons assist in understanding the distribution of ocean depths in the region. Geographic Coverage The data covers oceanic and coastal regions of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, with supplementary contextual data for adjacent areas beyond these countries to complete the geographic context. Data Sources and Licensing The data is a product of joint efforts from federal agencies including Natural Resources Canada, Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía in Mexico, and the U.S. Geological Survey. It is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), allowing redistribution and adaptation with appropriate attribution. Update frequency: Irregular Limitations of use: Intended for continental-scale reference. Vintage: The information presented in the map layer represents the available input data in 2010 Applications (Intended Use) Environmental planning and management in coastal and marine ecosystems. Marine navigation and oceanographic research. Integration with other thematic layers in the North American Environmental Atlas for comprehensive continental analysis. Supporting cross-border environmental cooperation and policy-making among North American nations. Files Download

Overview This layer is an image of nighttime lights of North America, including the Caribbean and Mexico, produced through a collaborative effort between the national atlas programs of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, in partnership with the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). The data were collected in 1996 and 1997 as part of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) of the United States. DMSP satellites collect visible and infrared cloud imagery, as well as monitoring atmospheric, oceanographic, hydrologic, cryospheric, and near-Earth space environments. The program maintains a constellation of two sun-synchronous, near-polar orbiting satellites, with an orbital period of 101 minutes and an inclination of 99 degrees. This image was created during the periods 16–21 March 1996, 5–14 January 1997, and 3–12 February 1997, when the gain on the OLS sensor was turned down to 24 from the normal 64 decibels so that urban centers did not saturate the signal.  This is a revised version made in May 2002 map layer, with a corrected shoreline for Greenland. Geographic Coverage The coverage spans the North American continent, including Canada, Mexico, and the United States, as well as the Caribbean. Data Sources and Licensing Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), based on data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC). The data is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), allowing redistribution and adaptation, including for commercial purposes, with appropriate attribution. Update frequency: As needed Limitations of use: None. Acknowledgment of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation and/or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) would be appreciated in products derived from these data. Vintage: 1996–1997 Applications (Intended Use) Visualizing urbanization and human settlement patterns across North America. Research on population distribution and land use as inferred from artificial lighting. Basemap and reference layer for continental-scale environmental analysis. Integration with other thematic layers in the North American Environmental Atlas for comprehensive continental analysis. Files Download