Canadian System of Environmental-Economic Accounts - Ecosystem Accounts

Extent of contiguously settled areas, area

Extent refers to the degree to which something has spread; the size or scale of something.

Contiguously settled areas refer to a geography representing the physical footprint of settled areas on the landscape. They are based on Earth observation-derived land use data. Contiguously settled area boundaries were produced for population centres with a 2021 population greater than 5,000 people or for those that fell within a census metropolitan area or census agglomeration. They include built-up and artificial surfaces, as well as agriculture and natural and semi-natural land cover classes that are enclosed by built-up areas.

The data for this variable are reported using the following measurements:

• Square kilometre