Section 3: Ecosystem accounts and statistics by census metropolitan area The changing landscape of Canadian metropolitan areas
Section 3: Ecosystem accounts and statistics by census metropolitan area

Ecosystem accounting is an emerging field within the discipline of environmental accounting. The concepts and methods of environmental accounting are described in the United Nations' SEEA Central Framework, which became an international statistical standard in 2012, after 20 years of development. The concepts and methods of ecosystem accounting, described in the United Nations' SEEA Experimental Ecosystem Accounting, are not as mature.

Some national statistical offices, Statistics Canada among them, are working to validate and further develop the concepts and methods described in SEEA Experimental Ecosystem Accounting. Initial results are presented in the ecosystem asset accounts presented below for each CMA.

The accounting processes developed to generate this land cover and land use change information represent the progress in ecosystem accounting at Statistics Canada (see Appendix B. Data sources and methods for a summary description of the methodology). While these tables currently only include broad categories—built-up area, arable land, natural and semi-natural land—work is planned to generate time series on other land cover and land use categories, which will eventually form part of the table.

For more information see:

Statistics Canada, 2013, "Measuring ecosystem goods and services in Canada," Human Activity and the Environment, Catalogue no. 16-201-X.

Statistics Canada, 2014, "What is the value of an ecosystem? Teacher's Kit for Human Activity and the Environment 2013: Measuring ecosystem goods and services in Canada," Human Activity and the Environment – Teacher's kit, Catalogue no. 16-507-X.

Statistics Canada, 2014, "Agriculture in Canada," Human Activity and the Environment, Catalogue no. 16-201-X.

United Nations Statistics Division, European Commission, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and The World Bank, 2014, System of Environmental-Economic Accounting 2012: Central Framework,
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/envaccounting/seeaRev/SEEA_CF_Final_en.pdf (accessed July 28, 2015).

United Nations, European Commission, Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and World Bank, 2014, System of Environmental-Economic Accounting 2012: Experimental Ecosystem Accounting, http://unstats.un.org/unsd/envaccounting/seeaRev/eea_final_en.pdf (accessed November 24, 2015).