Description: Canopy Cover Characterization consists of 3,300 points randomly distributed across Etobicoke Creek watershed and assigned to a land cover class in 2009 (historical period) and 2018 (current). i-Tree Canopy was used to generate random points which were classified by a trained technician based on underlying Google Earth imagery. Each point was assigned to one of the following land cover classes for each time period: Tree/Shrub (only tall shrubs included), Soil/Bare Ground (in agricultural areas), Soil/Bare Ground (outside of agricultural areas), Grass/Herbaceous (in agricultural areas), Grass/Herbaceous (outside of agricultural areas), Impervious Road, Impervious Other, and Impervious Buildings. The Tree/Shrub class indicates the presence of canopy and was used to assess canopy cover percentages at the watershed and subwatershed scales. Fields, F2018_CC and F2009_CC, indicate the presence or absence of canopy cover as a 1 or 0, respectively, in 2018 and 2009. Dif18_09 indicates if there was a change in canopy cover from 2009 to 2018: +1 is an increase from no canopy to canopy, 0 shows no canopy cover change, and -1 indicates a loss of canopy between 2009 and 2018.

Last Updated: August, 2020

Data Source: Original dataset based on classifying freely available Google Earth orthoimagery from 2009 and 2018.