The Open Database of Greenhouses

Catalogue number: 32-26-0005
Issue number: 2023001

The Open Database of Greenhouses (ODG) is a collection of digitized greenhouses and their locations across Canada and is made available under the Open Government Licence - Canada.

The ODG is a derivative product of open data which involves high resolution earth observation imagery available across various sources such as open data portals, partnerships and agreements controlled by municipal, provincial governments or were provided by companies which hold an existing National Standing Offer with the Federal Government. This project uses leading-edge methods, data integration and advanced technologies to reduce the response burden on greenhouse operators. As part of these efforts ODG is used as a tool for new technologies created to automate the collection of greenhouse data across Canada by Statistics Canada's Agriculture Division (Agriculture and food statistics) in collaboration with Statistics Canada's Data Science Division. The data is one of the many ways Statistics Canada is endeavouring to reduce response burden of agricultural operators in Canada with the AgZero: Using alternative data and advanced technologies to reduce response burden on farmers project. This database was released in collaboration with the Centre for Special Business Projects and is a component of the Linkable Open Data Environment (LODE)

Data sources and methodology

The ODG is a derived product digitized using a collection of earth observation imagery sources, which are available to the public through open government portals under various open data licences or obtained through partnership agreements with municipalities, provinces and companies which hold a National Standing Offer with the Federal Government.

The earth observation data is a collection of high-resolution aerial and satellite imagery, with 7.5 cm-50 cm pixel resolution. The earth observation data and derived greenhouses are made available across 10 different municipalities within 4 provinces in Canada.

The first version of the database (version 1.0) contains approximately 2,400 records of greenhouses. Earth observation data as mentioned above is provided for the years 2017-2021. For each earth observation dataset, visually identified greenhouses are digitized in relation to the image and then the dataset is further processed to create a collective dataset across Canada. Greenhouses identified within the dataset do not discriminate by greenhouse type, such as what is growing inside, and are not labelled differently based on any features that could help classify them. There is further possibility that the dataset includes buildings that look like greenhouses but are not defined as such by Statistics Canada's greenhouse definition, such as event spaces held in greenhouses, garden nurseries or greenhouses not yet active for vegetation growth. Data from the earth observation datasets is not copied into the ODG and instead original variables are created during processing of the dataset.

To see the full list of variables and what information they include, in additional to data sources of earth observation imagery, please visit the metadata document that accompanies the ODG.

The variables included in the ODG are as follows:

  • Unique ID
  • Shape
  • Province or Territory
  • Longitude
  • Latitude
  • Data Source
  • Imagery Date

For more information on how these variables were compiled see the metadata document that accompanies the ODG.

Downloading the ODG

For ease of download, the ODG shapefile and accompanying metadata document is provided as a zipped file.

Visualizing the ODEF

The ODG content is available for visualization on a map using the Linkable Open Data Environment Viewer.

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