Global distribution of lakes, where most lakes can be found...

[frozentripper]

To back up my claim made yesterday in the crucial french fries thread that Canada has the world's most concentrated collection of lakes and rivers... here's the scientific evidence shown in a map (map A where the darker areas represent the world's surface area covered by greater % of freshwater, surface area greater than 3% covered by freshwater, greater than 10%, greater than 50%, etc).

https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13603


Turns out that 62% of the world's lakes are in Canada, and 9% of the surface area is covered by freshwater. Smaller lakes (or they may be large depending on your relative viewpoint) were included in the study, lakes larger than 10 hectares in area, about 25 acres. So of the world's 1,420,000 lakes of that size, 880,400 are Canadian. Finland is another nation with a large amount of area being covered by of freshwater.

Lots of room to move around in and explore remote, mysterious places... since it's Sunday morning, and as a tribute to the Finns and their love of lake country, here's the work of a Finnish composer from about 1900, Sibelius, music inspired by the ancient Norse myth of the Swan of Tuonela, where lake's resident swan held supernatural powers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3_H5YlgKFU

 

[Magnus919]

In gross figures, yeah, Canada is looking great. By % of country's surface area, have a look at the Nordic region, especially Finland. Scotland is also looking promising.

 

[Guest]

Ah, to be In Maryland, Land of Plenty.

Except for lakes. There is not a single natural lake anywhere in the State.

We do have plenty of rivers, the Chesapeake Bay and tidal tributaries, hundreds of paddleable streams and runs, a few well preserved swamps and more uninhabited marsh than one could cover in a lifetime.

For all that I envy those of you in the deep blue on that map. Cool map BTW.

 

[gumpus]

If you want to beat us up a little more you can also normalize the maps for population density. Ka-ching.

Here in SW Michigan on the sunset coast there are a fair number of small lakes, very few if any medium size lakes, and one big one known as The Lake.

 

[frozentripper]

Gumpus, I wish you hadn't mentioned anything about normalizing the maps for population density. Now I'll be up half the night trying to visualize it.

You all please note that the map shows areas with the MOST lakes... not where the BEST lakes are. I've talked to people who have paddled in the English lake district and they do have their own kind of magic, simply smashing time we had on the watah, you must give it a go.

 

[bcelect]

Turns out that 62% of the world's lakes are in Canada, and 9% of the surface area is covered by freshwater. Smaller lakes (or they may be large depending on your relative viewpoint) were included in the study, lakes larger than 10 hectares in area, about 25 acres. So of the world's 1,420,000 lakes of that size, 880,400 are Canadian. Finland is another nation with a large amount of area being covered by of freshwater.
That's a LOT of mosquitoes!

 

[gumpus]

I fully endorse your recommendation to redo the map based on BEST paddling locations. I'm also aligned with your definition of BEST as "most magical for canoe paddlers". I think this approach will automatically include normalization for population density plus my personal preference for liquid water.

 

[icedragonmx]

I think I take it for granted how great an area we have to play in! Within 3 hours of here we have thousands of lakes to paddle in!

 

[lowangle al]

It looks like the North East is the place to be for paddling options. I have read that there are over a million lakes in Alaska, but with only about 5 highways I doubt you can drive to much more than a thousand of them. There are some great places to paddle up here but there are many more options for float trips even in Western Canada.

Whatever the density of lakes is in your area the best place to have one is in your backyard.