Water quality in Canadian rivers indicators

The Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators (CESI) program provides data and information to track Canada’s performance on key environmental sustainability issues. The data collection contains datasets that track water quality within Canada. The Water quality in Canadian rivers indicators provide a measure of the ability of river water across Canada to support plants and animals. At each monitoring site, water quality data are compared to water quality guidelines to create a rating for the site. If measured water quality is below the guidelines, it can maintain a healthy ecosystem. Water quality at a monitoring site is considered excellent when substances in a river are very rarely measured above their guidelines. Conversely, water quality is rated poor when measurements are usually above their guidelines, sometimes by a wide margin. Information is provided to Canadians in a number of formats including: static and interactive maps, charts and graphs, HTML and CSV data tables and downloadable reports. See the supplementary documentation for the data sources and details on how the data were collected and how the indicator was calculated.

Supplemental Information

Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators - Home page:

https://www.canada.ca/environmental-indicators

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Last Updated April 17, 2026, 20:36 (UTC)
Created April 17, 2026, 20:36 (UTC)
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open_canada_collection primary
open_canada_date_published 2018-01-31 00:00:00
open_canada_keywords {"fr": ["Eau", "Qualité de l'eau", "Fleuve / Rivière", "Indicateur environnemental", "indicateurs environnementaux", "indicateur environnemental", "eau", "à l'échelle nationale", "rivières canadiennes", "cours d'eau", "qualité de l'eau", "l'eau douce", "pollution de l'eau", "vie aquatique", "région de drainage", "sites de suivi", "activités humaines", "impacts des activités humaines", "pressions", "recommandées de qualité de l'eau", "l'eau douce de surface"], "en": ["Water", "Water quality", "Rivers", "Environmental indicators", "environenvironmental indicators", "water", "national", "Canadian rivers", "water quality", "freshwater", "water pollution", "aquatic life", "drainage region", "monitoring sites", "human activity", "human impacts", "pressures", "water quality guidelines", "surface water"]}
open_canada_subject ["nature_and_environment"]
sensitivity_level unrestricted
title_fr Indicateurs sur la qualité de l'eau des cours d'eau canadiens
update_frequency as_needed