Earth Sciences - Natural Resources Canada

As Canada’s foremost geomatics and geoscience organization, NRCan provides public geoscientific and geospatial expertise, knowledge and technology to support environmental, social and economic objectives of the federal government.  This knowledge is used to strengthen Canada’s understanding, stewardship and sovereignty of its landmass and natural resources and helps to build a competitive advantage for its related economic sectors. Not only does it rely on its in-depth science and technology expertise, Earth Sciences programs and services in NRCan also leverage federal/provincial/ territorial and academic partnerships to effectively support its mandate and legislated responsibilities.

NRCan’s fundamental earth science, geography, and geospatial information and expertise help to:

• Develop innovative and sophisticated tools, technologies, standards and frameworks based on geo-information to enhance productivity or cost-efficiency in the Natural Resource sectors and other organizations;
• Underpin land development and assertion of sovereign rights through its role to help define legal geographic boundaries;
• Reduce investment risk in natural resource development, by identifying potential sources of energy and minerals; and
• Assist in reducing environmental impacts related to natural resource development through the use of science and technology products for effective regulatory practices and informing stakeholders with evidence-based information.

NRCan’s Earth Sciences scientific and technical expertise spans the areas of geology, environmental geoscience on the land surface, vegetation, groundwater, permafrost, snow and ice as well as their interactions with resource development and infrastructure. It also spans scientific and technical expertise on remote sensing (RS) satellite imagery, geodetic surveys, topographic, height and other theme-based data references, authoritative geospatial standards, legal surveys and boundary information, as well as regulatory and support functions to cadastral surveys on Canada’s landmass and waters.