The bedrock acid rock drainage potential digital product for southwestern Nova Scotia illustrates the potential of bedrock to generate ARD if physically disturbed or exposed. The purpose of this digital product is to inform landowners, developers and municipal planners about the geological hazard of acid rock drainage (ARD) and to identify where the bedrock in southwestern Nova Scotia is potentially sulphide-bearing and may develop ARD if physically disturbed or exposed. Disturbing the bedrock refers to activities that physically alter and/or expose the bedrock, such as drilling, blasting and excavation. There are three ARD potential categories: high, moderate and low. This data is intended to be used as a tool for making land-use and environmental planning decisions by indicating where precaution is needed, or further lithogeochemical analysis is likely required, before engaging in activities that disturb or expose bedrock.

This digital product is a compilation of surficial geological data of the Halifax Metropolitan area which was defined by Dan Utting using a LiDAR derived bare-earth hillshade model. The LiDAR data was collected by PHB Lasermap, and provided by Halifax Regional Municipality. The data was used to create Open File Maps OFM ME 2011-001 to 2011-012, compiled by D. J. Utting, 2011. The digital product was created by Geoscience and Mines Branch staff at the Department of Energy and Mines. The digital product contains layers for geological features such as: age dates, drumlins, eskers, geological contacts, surficial geologic units, ice movement, moraines, meltwater, neatline, station locations, and large aggregate quarries.

This digital product is a compilation of geological data which was collected as part of the mapping of the Meguma Terrane of southwestern Nova Scotia by C.E. White. The principal goals of this project are to produce a series of 1:50 000 scale geological bedrock maps of the area, to describe and interpret the sedimentary, igneous, metamorphic and deformational history of the Cambrian to Early Devonian metamorphic rocks, and to evaluate the area’s economic potential. The data was used to create Open File Maps OFM ME 2012-076 to 2012-101, compiled by C. E. White, 2012. The digital product was created by Geoscience and Mines Branch staff. The original digital data was compiled from a number of sources and supplemented by field done during the course of the project. The digital product contains layers for geological features such as: age dates, anticlines/synclines, areas of concentrated drilling, drillholes, dykes, faults, fossils, bedrock geologic units, geological contacts, gold districts, mines, mineral occurrences, small outcrops, quarries, shafts, stockworks, structural data, and shear zones.

The Department of Natural Resources and Renewables (NRR) (formerly the Department of Energy and Mines) and Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change (ECC) maintains an electronic Well Log Database which contains water well construction and location information for water wells in the Province of Nova Scotia. Information in the database is entered from original paper copies of well logs that are submitted by certified well drillers and well diggers to ECC. This version of the database was extracted on January 5, 2022 and contains 125,517 well logs constructed between 1940 and 2021, inclusive.

This digital product is developed from a database of published drillhole information for the province of Nova Scotia. The database is maintained by the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources and Renewables, Geoscience and Mines Branch. The database was developed from information contained in publicly available mineral exploration assessment reports, open file reports and other Natural Resources and Renewables and Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) publications. The database provides approximate coordinate locations for many of the drillholes, and also provides a source reference on each drillhole. The digital product contains a layer for the drillholes.

This digital product is developed from the NovaROC database of mineral rights information for the province of Nova Scotia. The database is maintained by the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources and Renewables, Geoscience and Mines Branch. The digital product was developed from information contained in the NovaROC database and is updated every night at around 2:00 AM. The digital product contains layers for entities such as: exploration licences; special licences (coal, salt and potash, geothermal and minerals in a closure area); leases; hydrocarbon storage-area licences and leases; and non-mineral registrations. The extraction date-time field (EXTRCT_DT) identifies the date and time that the information was extracted from NovaROC.

The Departments of Natural Resources and Renewables and Nova Scotia Environment (NSE) maintains an electronic Well Log Database, which contains water well construction and location information for water wells in the province of Nova Scotia. Information in the database is entered from original paper copies of well logs that are submitted by certified well drillers and well diggers to NSE. The database currently contains approximately 115,500 well logs constructed between 1940 and 2012, inclusive.

Radon (Rn) is a naturally occurring, colourless and odourless gas that is radioactive and known to cause lung cancer. In fact, Rn is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking and the leading cause of the disease among nonsmokers (World Health Organization, 2009). Radon is generated naturally from the radioactive decay of uranium. Both elements are found in varying amounts in all the soils and rocks throughout the province (Goodwin et al., 2009, 2010a).
A GIS-based (Geographic Information System) approach was used to produce this dataset and open File map 2013-028. Using a GIS model to produce a dataset of this sort requires coverage of the study area in digital information layers of bedrock geology, surficial/soil geology and airborne gammaray spectrometry for eU (equivalent uranium). Coverage of the study area by indoor Rn measurement surveys is also necessary in order to test the validity of the GIS model and to determine exceedence probability percentages. Nova Scotia, more so than any other Canadian province or territory, benefits by having total provincial coverage in all these digital data layers and is, thus, a prime candidate for createing this derived digital product. The derivation and running of the GIS model are explained in more detail in O'Reilly et al. (2010). Basically, the GIS model brings together the three digital information layers and integrates the characteristics of each that pertain to its potential for the generation of Rn and for allowing the gas to migrate and accumulate within homes. The airborne gamma-ray spectrometric layer provides an estimate of the U concentration (U is the original source of the Rn) of the surface soils and rocks. The bedrock geology layer shows the distribution of each rock unit throughout the province and provides an estimate of each unit's potential to produce Rn. The surficial geology layer provides an estimate of the permeability of the surface material, a factor deemed very important in allowing Rn to travel through the soil to reach a building's foundation. These three data layers are factored against each other in the running of the GIS model and collectively produce a new layer depicting Rn potential score (Rn Score).
In our model the three data layers were given an equal weighting. Within each data layer, the potential for each unit constituting that layer to produce Rn was subjectively scored from 1 to 100. As such, following the running of the GIS model, a maximum cumulative Rn score of 300 is possible for any particular area. The GIS model produced a range of cumulative Rn scores from a minimum of 25 to a maximum of 275. It should be noted that areas of water cover produce a Rn score of zero, but since there are no homes or dwellings in water, these areas were ignored.
The Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness recommends that all homeowners in the province test their homes for Rn. Many Rn studies carried out globally have shown conclusively that, although the percentage of homes exceeding established Rn guidelines can vary from area to area, there are no areas completely devoid of homes with high Rn. No matter where you live, the only way you will know for sure whether or not your home has high Rn is to complete a proper Rn test (Health Canada, 2008). Since there are regions where there are a higher percentage of Rn guideline exceedences, a dataset such as this showing the distribution of these regions is useful in determining priority areas for testing and for assisting with building code guidelines.

A GIS-based approach for broadly evaluating the relative vulnerability of bedrock coastal aquifers to seawater intrusion in unserviced areas of the province was developed. The approach uses available provincial spatial datasets, such as digital elevation models, civic address points and well logs data, to evaluate relative vulnerability based on the following derived criteria: distance to the coast, land slope, development density, non-residential groundwater use and static water level.