Global Map of Irrigation Areas

Canada

Irrigated area as reported by the agricultural census 2001 is 784 469 ha in the 10 provinces of Canada [CA01]. Additionally there are 565 ha irrigated area in Yukon Territory and 7 ha irrigated area in the North-West Territories [CA02]. The figures are related to the year 2000. The total irrigated area in Canada is therefore 785 041 ha.

About 466 270 ha irrigated area is located in 13 official irrigation districts in the province of Alberta [CA03]. A map showing the outlines of these districts [CA04] was digitized and used thereafter to assign irrigated area to grid cells located in these irrigation districts. All the other irrigated area was assigned to cells classified as cropland in the GLC2000 land cover classification for North America [CA05]. In some census divisions the irrigated area as reported by the census was larger than the area classified as cropland by the GLC2000. Also in this case cells classified as cropland mosaics were assumed to be irrigated.

The distribution of irrigated area per census division is listed in the table below.

References

[CA01]: Statistics Canada (2001): 2001 Census of Agriculture, Table 8 - Land inputs by province, Census Agricultural Region (CAR) and Census Division (CD), 2000, downloaded from http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/95F0301XIE/tables.htm in March 2005.
[CA02]: Statistics Canada (2001): 2001 Census of Agriculture Data for the Yukon Territory and Northwest Territories, Table 8 - Land inputs by territory, 2000, downloaded from http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/95F0301XIE/tables/diss_e.htm in March 2005.
[CA03]: Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (2000): Report on "The Potential for Irrigation Expansion in Western Canada", Appendix A (Current Irrigation Studies), downloaded from http://www.agr.ca/pfra/pub/irrigapp.htm in August 2001.
[CA04]: Courtesy Alberta Sustainable Resource Development (2002): A map of the southern Alberta river basins and the Alberta Irrigation Districts, downloaded from http://www.smrid.ab.ca/smrid/basinsdistricts.pdf in March 2005.
[CA05]: R. Latifovic, Z. Zhu, J. Cihlar, J. Beaubien, R. Fraser (2003): The Land Cover Map for North America in the Year 2000, map version 2, GLC2000 database, European Commision Joint Research Centre, downloaded from http://www.gvm.jrc.it/glc2000 in January 2005.

Distribution of irrigated area in Canada by Census Division.