Greenbelt Plan GIS Data

The Greenbelt Act, 2005 enables the creation of a Greenbelt Plan to protect about 1.8 million acres of environmentally sensitive and agricultural land in the Golden Horseshoe from urban development and sprawl.  It includes and builds on about 800,000 acres of land within the Niagara Escarpment Plan and the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan.  GIS data has been created by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs and includes the Greenbelt outer boundary limits and the Natural Heritage System areas (areas of the Greenbelt Protected Countryside with the highest concentration of the most sensitive and/or significant natural features and functions). The file size of the entire vector dataset is approximately 5.6mb.

Coordinate system: UTM - NAD 83, Zone 17.
Source format: ESRI Shapefiles (ArcGIS/ArcView)
Released: June 2005

Available Themes / Layers

Greenbelt Final Designations, Greenbelt Natural Heritage System, Outer Boundary, and Urban River Connections.

Restrictions on Access

This resource is available to University of Western Ontario students, faculty and staff for academic, research or personal reasons.   Patrons will be required to present a valid UWO ID card and sign a release form when requesting the data. Data must be requested in person at the Map and Data Centre Reference desk.

Data Manipulation / Usage

The Map and Data Centre has 2 GIS workstations equipped with ArcGIS 10.0 and other software to explore/manipulate the data.  UWO users may also copy requested resources to a data storage device (ex. USB flash drive, CD-R) for research or teaching use outside of the library. The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing should be cited in any maps or graphics generated.

Sample View of the Data

Greenbelt boundary and NHS areas near Bolton, Ontario with StatCan 2008 Road Network Overlay

Sample Citation

Greenbelt Plan, 2005 [computer file]. Peterborough/Toronto: Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs & Housing, 2005.