In the final lab, we were asked to take on the role of a natural resource planner, creating maps of the proposed project area for the British Columbia Snowmobile Federation (BCSF), a group opposed to the ski resort. Two maps were created, one of the natural land use of the Squamish area, and one of the Hillshade of the region. These maps would be useful in the planning stage of the resort, where local officials could veto the plan, if they were sufficiently concerned about the impact on wildlife.
‘I was approached by the British Columbia Snowmobile Federation to create a viability map for the proposed site for a new Ski resort in the Squamish region.
Based on the research conducted it is my recommendation for the ski resort to not be built in the proposed area. Firstly, over 30% of the proposal area is under 600m elevation which will likely not experience a sufficient amount of snow, a major challenge for a ski resort. If there was a lack of snowfall then snow may have to be brought in from elsewhere which could be damaging to local ecosystems and environments. Secondly, over half (52%) of the project area is situated within areas of endangered wildlife, including old growth management areas, ungulate ranges, endangered fauna areas and fishery buffers. Putting a ski resort in an area where construction in over half of the area would have major impacts on the wildlife is untenable.
In order to create this map, data was collected from Statistics Canada, and was cut to size- meaning that only the area of the project boundary could be seen. Afterwards the elevation was split into two groups (above and below 600m above sea level), in order to separate ‘snowy’ from ‘non snowy’ areas. Afterwards, each individual area of habitat with the same species in it had to be collated together, excluding non-endangered habitat and only including the endangered areas. Once the ungulate range and old growth management areas were added to the map, only the fishery areas remain missing from the map. In order to create a buffer of 50m upstream and 100m downstream a series of selection functions were used to find the areas which fulfilled this requirement. Once these were coalesced together the buffer could be also added to the map. Finally, the addition of roads, contour lines and the park boundary completed the functional map, with a legend, title and north arrow added for clarity.
In my opinion the two greatest environmental concerns in the proposed area are the impact on fisheries and the impact of endangered species. This is because between the two, they contain approximately 30% of the total proposed area, and any development will almost certainly be unable to not impact 30% of a proposed site. In order to potentially reduce the environmental impact fences could be placed around these areas to make sure that no construction can occur and damage them. However, rivers are very susceptible to infiltration to construction must take care to not contaminate/pollute the rivers and streams within the proposed area.
Overall, I think it is very challenging to mitigate against any of the negative impacts of the proposed ski resort and therefore it should not be built, as it poses a large risk to the environment and to the ecosystem as a whole.’
This memo would be useful in informing local officials that in the proposed region there will be damage to ecological systems and services and that it is too high a price to pay for a ski resort. However, there is an interesting question relating to ethics and data. Sometimes, due to employment situations you may have to provide an assessment that you morally disagree with. Despite this thought, I agree totally with the memo’s findings. If over half of a proposed construction area is in vulnerable ecosystems, then it seems ridiculous to keep going with the project.
To conclude, during this project:
- I used multiple ARCGIS features in tandem, including queries, proximity analyses and polygon overlays, in order to create a map of the natural land use in the Squamish area.
- I made an informed decision, after consulting my data and maps, giving an accurate concise summary of the issues with a Squamish ski resort.
- I evaluated the ethical and moral issues of environmental assessments and project viability analyses.