Mapped winter road connections to remote First Nations communities in Canada 2022-2023, using open data sources and satellite imagery

This dataset consists of shapefile outlines of winter roads and ice roads in Canada, verified for the 2022-2023 winter road season. It focuses on the public winter roads leading to remote First Nations communities which have no permanent land access. The line data also includes private winter roads, community-built winter roads where information is available, and feeder roads connecting to the permanent road network. First Nations communities connected solely by winter roads are included as point locations. Their local roads were likewise verified, updated, or newly digitised if not included in Canada''s National Road Network (NRN) data.

Features were traced by hand and information was extracted from Canada''''s NRN open datasets and then modified using Esri Imagery Basemap, Planet Labs and provincial, municipal and federal information. This dataset aims to provide a temporally and spatially consistent record of varying provincial datasets to support respective infrastructure departments and environmental research of surface and climatic conditions surrounding winter roads.

The dataset was produced and funded through a NERC QUADRAT DTP studentship (NE/S007377/1).

Alternate title: Polar Data Centre (PDC) record GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/01926

Date (Publication): 2024-11-01

Citation identifier: http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/dms/metadata.php?id= / GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/01926

Point of contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
British Antarctic Survey		pdc@bas.ac.uk	Custodian
NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre	Salles, A., & Mullan, D.	pdc@bas.ac.uk	Originator

Maintenance and update frequency: Unknown

Keywords

NDGO0001

NERC OAI Harvesting

NERC_DDC

GCMD Parameter Valids

EARTH SCIENCE > Cryosphere > Snow/Ice > Snow Cover
EARTH SCIENCE > Human Dimensions > Boundaries > Administrative Divisions
EARTH SCIENCE > Human Dimensions > Infrastructure > Transportation
EARTH SCIENCE > Human Dimensions > Population > Population Distribution
EARTH SCIENCE > Land Surface > Frozen Ground > Seasonally Frozen Ground

BAS Free-text keywords

Canada
First Nations
ice roads
remote
seasonal infrastructure
winter roads

Use limitation: This data is governed by the NERC data policy http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/sites/data/policy/ and supplied under Open Government Licence v.3 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/.

Access constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: This data is governed by the NERC data policy http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/sites/data/policy/ and supplied under Open Government Licence v.3 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/.

Language: English

Topic category

Boundaries
Geoscientific information
Imagery base maps earth cover
Society
Transportation

Begin date: 2022-12-01

End date: 2023-09-30

Reference system identifier: OGP / urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326

Distribution format

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Polar Data Centre - British Antarctic Survey		pdc@bas.ac.uk	Distributor

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
http	http://ramadda.data.bas.ac.uk/repository/entry/show?entryid=062ae7b9-e68b-4a34-808a-2731b15b9dfd	GET DATA

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Domain consistency

Measure identification: INSPIRE / Conformity_001

Conformance result

Title: INSPIRE Data Specification on unknown theme Guidelines

Date

Explanation: See the referenced specification

Pass: No

Statement: Accuracy based on the original NRN and Indigenous Services Canada datasets, manual tracing on Esri Imagery Basemaps if dated 2020 or more recent, and selected Planet Labs, Inc. daily imagery from January through September 2023 (access granted under their Education and Research Program).