3.4 Terrain and Soil Attributes

Conventions for displaying terrain and soil drainage symbology on air photographs and in the terrestrial ecosystem map database should follow Howes and Kenk (1997), RIC (1994), and the Canada Soil Survey Committee (1978) listed in Appendix B. The proportion of terrain components is indicated with deciles.

3.5 Polygon Boundaries

Figure 3.9 provides the standardized polygon boundary line weights-or, alternatively, colour boundaries-that should be used for final presentation of ecosystem mapping.

Figure 3.9 Standardized polygon boundary line weights

3.6 Options for Ecoregion/Biogeoclimatic Map Unit Symbols

On a map, the ecosection unit symbol should generally be presented above the biogeoclimatic unit symbol, with both enclosed by a circle (see Figure 3.2). A new symbol should be placed on the map whenever one or both of the two units change. Although this is the standard, alternative methods may work in special circumstances based on the approval of the project ecologist.

3.7 Options for Ecosystem Map Unit Symbols

With the use of GIS and a colour plotter, there are many alternatives for displaying the ecosystem unit components on a terrestrial ecosystem map. The standard is presented in Figure 3.9 above. The alternatives are generally dictated by the needs of the clients of the map.

For example, if forestry staff are familiar with the site series numbers presented in the Ministry of Forests regional guides, they can produce maps with the two-digit numbers rather than the two-character codes. However, not all map units are site series. In these cases, accepted site series could be given the two-digit code (e.g., 01 for the zonal ecosystem), while non-correlated, generalized, grouped, or other ecosystem units could keep their appropriate two-letter code. Since ecosystem units have both alphabetic and numeric codes, it is suggested that a separator be used to distinguish the components. This alternative could appear as follows and for this example, the components are separated by a period:

Simple unit:	01.7	Describes one site series and structural stage, with no site modifier
Compound unit:	4.01.7-3.03.sw.5-3.RO.w.1	Describes a combination of site series and other units

[Back to TOC] [Previous] [Next]