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The Lower Mainland is a name commonly applied to the region surrounding and including Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. As of 2011, 2,590,921 people (59% of British Columbia's total population), lived in the region; sixteen of the province's thirty most populous municipalities are located there.〔Canada 2011 Census (Canada 2011 Census Subdivisions ). Retrieved on: 2012-02-14.〕〔Islands contained within rivers in the region are considered to be part of the Lower Mainland.〕 While the term ''Lower Mainland'' has been recorded from the earliest period of non-native settlement in British Columbia, it has never been officially defined in legal terms. The British Columbia Geographical Names Information System (BCGNIS) comments that most residents of Vancouver might consider it to be only areas west of Mission and Abbotsford, while residents in the rest of the province consider it to be the whole region south of Whistler and west of Hope. However, the term has historically been in popular usage for over a century to describe a region that extends from Horseshoe Bay south to the Canada – United States border and east to Hope at the eastern end of the Fraser Valley.〔Gentilcore, R.L., ed. 1993. ''Historical Atlas of Canada, Vol II, The Land Transformed 1800–1891.'' Plate 36, "Lower Mainland 1881." Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-3447-0.〕 Climate, ecology and geology of the Lower Mainland are consistent enough that it has been classified as a separate ecoregion (the Lower Mainland Ecoregion) within the Ecological framework of Canada, used by both Federal and Provincial Environment Ministries.〔Environment Canada. (Pacific Maritime Ecozone ). Ecological Framework of Canada. Retrieved on: 2011-07-09.〕 The region is the traditional territory of the Sto:lo, a Halkomelem-speaking people of the Coast Salish linguistic and cultural grouping. There are two Regional Districts within the region, Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley Regional District. ==Geography== (詳細はCoast Mountains and to the southeast by the Cascade Mountains, and is traversed from east to west by the Fraser River. Due to its consistency of climate, flora and fauna, geology and land use, "Lower Mainland" is also the name of an ecoregion—a biogeoclimatic region—that comprises the eastern part of the Georgia Depression and extends from Powell River on the Sunshine Coast to Hope at the eastern end of the Fraser Valley.〔Environment Canada. (Ecoregions of Canada - Lower Mainland ). Ecological Framework of Canada. Retrieved on: 2011-07-09〕 One of the mildest climates in Canada, the region has a mean annual temperature of 9°C with a summer mean of 15 °C and a winter mean of 3.5 °C. Annual precipitation ranges from an annual mean of 850 mm in the west end to 2000 mm in the eastern end of the Fraser Valley and at higher elevations. Maximum precipitation occurs as rain in winter. Less than ten percent falls as snow at sea level but the amount of snowfall increases significantly with elevation.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lower Mainland」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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