National Action Plan on Open Government Commitment
C01.1.1 - Climate Change and Sustainable Growth
- Commitment:
- Climate Change and Sustainable Growth
- Milestone:
- Through the Open Science and Data Platform make information related to cumulative effects, including climate change and sustainable growth, easier for people in Canada to find and understand
- Indicator:
- C01.1.1 - Add content and features to the Open Science and Data Platform, using user engagement and feedback, both internal and external to government to set priorities for additions
- Lead Organization:
- Natural Resources Canada
- Deadline:
- By 2023
- Summit for Democracy:
- No
Updates
2023-12
The Q3 update cycle (Release 8) of the Open Science and Data Platform included a total of 947 new content records onboarded including 551 scientific publications, 337 regulatory records, 49 datasets, and 10 total content collections onboarded to the platform between October and November. Examples of newly onboarded content include scientific publications from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) such as A Critical Review of Bioaccumulation and Biotransformation of Organic Chemicals in Birds, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) such as A framework to support the identification of critical habitat for wide-ranging species at risk under climate change, and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) such as A path toward better data consolidation and global co-operation of radiation research. Environmental monitoring reports from the CNSC were also onboarded, such as the Cluff Lake Project. For further details on specific numbers of recently onboarded content, please contact the OSDP team at osdp-psdo@nrcan-rncan.gc.ca. Examples of newly onboarded geospatial datasets include Cumulative human impact maps for the Bay of Fundy from Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), and Lands, Ecosystems, and Conservation Unit Boundaries from the Government of Alberta.
The fall update also included new curated content collections in regions of interest, including the Abitibi Region in Ontario and Quebec to support understanding of cumulative effects in the region (composed of 8 watershed sub-collections), and the Atlantic offshore region in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador to support the Regional Assessments of Offshore Wind Development. The offshore wind content collection was completed in collaboration with the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada.
In the interest of transparency and in response to suggestions made by the Multi-Stakeholder Forum, past user feedback survey results are now accessible via the About OSDP page. The About page features important context on where information on the Platform comes from, what sets it apart, and how it relates to Open Government with a link to the Open Government Partnership site and the 2022-2024 National Action Plan.
Work is also underway to update the content collections created to support the Terrestrial Cumulative Effects Initiative: Resources to Understand Cumulative Effects in Western Canada for the next update of the Platform. Updating these collections will be informed by engagement ECCC had with Indigenous groups who are involved in TCEI projects.
About OSDP page
All recently added CNSC content: CNSC Environmental Monitoring Reports and publications (all new)
Example of recently added CNSC publication: A framework to support the identification of critical habitat for wide-ranging species at risk under climate change
Example of recently added CNSC environmental monitoring report: Cluff Lake Project
Example of recently added ECCC publication: A Critical Review of Bioaccumulation and Biotransformation of Organic Chemical in Birds
Example of recently added NRCan publication: A framework to support the identification of critical habitat for wide-ranging species at risk under climate change
Abitibi content collection: Resources to Understand Cumulative Effects in the Abitibi Region
Atlantic Offshore Wind content collection: Resources to Understand Potential Cumulative Effects of Offshore Wind Development in Atlantic Canada
Example of recently added federal data (DFO): Cumulative human impact maps for the Bay of Fundy
Example of recently added provincial data (Alberta): Lands, Ecosystems, and Conservation Unit Boundaries
OSDP email: osdp-psdo@nrcan-rncan.gc.ca
2023-09
Planning for the next update of the Open Science and Data Platform, also known as “Release 8” has been the focus of this past quarter as the teams continue to identify ways to onboard cumulative effects relevant content to OSDP. Release 8 Part 1 is scheduled for public launch in November and will include a variety of new content including scientific publications and environmental monitoring reports from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), and Natural Resources Canada (NRCan).
Release 8 will also include new curated content collections in regions of interest, including the Abitibi Region in Ontario and Quebec to support understanding of cumulative effects in the region, and the regionAtlantic offshore region in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador to support the Regional Assessments of Offshore Wind Development. The offshore wind content collection was completed in collaboration with the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada.
2023-06
Planning for the next update of the Open Science and Data Platform, also known as “Release 8” has been the focus of this past quarter as the teams continue to identify ways to onboard cumulative effects relevant content to OSDP. Release 8 is scheduled for public launch in 2024 and will include a variety of new content including scientific publications from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), and Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), federal data from the NRCan and datasets from the Government of Northwest Territories. Progress has also been made behind the scenes exploring considerations for onboarding non-government content, e.g., from industry, environmental non-government organizations (ENGOs) and Indigenous peoples, including Indigenous data sovereignty principles such as OCAP® (ownership, control, access, and possession).
Data gaps and availability, as well as lack of detail in certain metadata records can present challenges. Resource limitations can also hinder progress on key indicators.
2023-03
The Open Science and Data Platform (OSDP) was officially renewed for another five years through 2023-2028, and thus planning for the next five years began this quarter. A planning retreat was hosted in Ottawa in February where teams and co-leads collaborated and began creating roadmaps to plan for enhancement and optimized delivery of the OSDP through this next five-year phase.
Release 7 of OSDP was officially launched January 24, 2023. This release included a variety of new content including the new “Resources to Understand Cumulative Effects in Northern Ontario” content collection focused on data relevant to the watersheds surrounding the Regional Assessment in the Ring of Fire Area in Northern Ontario.
New Provincial/Territorial geospatial datasets were also onboarded from Saskatchewan (368), Manitoba (118), and Newfoundland and Labrador (7).
Newly onboarded curated scientific publications content includes Transport Canada’s open-access publications, including the Cumulative Effects of Marine Shipping Framework.
The onboarding of Canada Energy Regulator (CER) pipeline registry known as BERDI (Biophysical Economic and Regulatory Development Information) is now the fifth regulatory registry integrated within OSDP, alongside the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada Registry, Fisheries Act Registry, Transport Canada Registry, and the British Columbia Major Projects Inventory.
Work focused on planning future content additions is ongoing, including the exploration of non-government information and data, and Indigenous Knowledge and data.
Data gaps and availability, as well as lack of detail in certain metadata records are common and can present challenges. Resource limitations can also be a factor related to progress on key indicators.
2022-12
1.1.1 Preparation for Release 7 of the Open Science and Data Platform continued through last quarter with a focus of ensuring all new content that was ready for public launch of Release 7 January 17, 2023. This involved a heavy focus on user acceptance testing (UAT) in the OSDP testing or “staging” environment to ensure all content was functioning and displaying properly. New content planned for Release 7 includes a new content collection entitled “Resources to Understand Cumulative Effects in Northern Ontario”, focused on data relevant to the watersheds surrounding the Regional Assessment in the Ring of Fire Area in Northern Ontario, new geospatial datasets from Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Newfoundland and Labrador, and new scientific publications from Transport Canada including the Cumulative Effects of Marine Shipping Framework.
2022-09
Since January 2022, a significant number of content and features have been added to the Open Science and Data Platform guided by feedback and user engagement. The Platform’s catalogue continued to grow, reaching over 125,000 scientific publications and nearing 5,000 datasets through collaborations with federal, provincial and territorial government providers. Additionally, the Open Science and Data Platform’s team collaborated with the Terrestrial Cumulative Effects Initiative to create content collections available through the Platform as of April 2022 in order to highlight data relevant to regions of interest at the watershed level, and to support Indigenous partners' research and projects. Features were added to enhance user experience and use of the Platform, including advanced search via the Navigation Tips page in April 2022 to help users navigate the platform’s features more easily. The What’s New gallery was created to showcase newly onboarded data and articles of interest which was launched in May 2022 and continues to be updated on a bi-monthly basis with newly onboarded content. The Platform’s team continues to collaborate with a wide range of partners to obtain advice and feedback, which included a Government Advisory Working Group on the Platform, Indigenous organizations, academia, non-government environmental organizations and members from industry. A survey was made available through the Platform throughout March and April 2022 to guide future enhancements and user experience of the Platform. Extensive social media campaigns generated significant interest, with over 144,000 views for the period of November 2021 to January 2022, and 132,000 views for the period of May-September 2022, which helped encourage use of the Platform as a key tool to support the sharing of scientific information and data to support open government goals.
New content added in this reporting period included federal and provincial data, for example, from Transport Canada (Cumulative Effects of Marine Shipping), Environment and Climate Change Canada (Great Lakes Nearshore Waters Assessment), and Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. The content collection entitled “Resources to Understand Cumulative Effects in Western Canada”, which was created to support understanding of cumulative effects in the watersheds of interest to the Terrestrial Cumulative Effects Initiative, was featured in the What’s New Gallery in July 2022 and on social media through a short datasets demonstration video. In September 2022, a video tutorial was added to the Navigation Tips page, as per a set of recommendations from a user engagement session with graduate students at Dalhousie University’s School of Resource and Environmental Studies held in November 2021. The video offers a high-level tour of the Open Science and Data Platform’s key features including the keyword search and map viewer functions. Future content planning that occurred in this quarter included the onboarding of more provincial data (from Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador) into the platform’s testing environment. Planning also began for a second regional content collection focused on the watershed regions surrounding the Ring of Fire in Northern Ontario