Introduction
In this lab, I conducted an environmental impact assessment to determine the viability of a proposed ski development project near Squamish. The Municipality of Squamish is particularly concerned about this project due to the presence of old growth forests, riparian management zones around rivers and streams and ungulate habitat regions within this area. Additionally, given the onslaught of climate change there is concern around the elevation in this area and whether it is high enough to guarantee snow. The first map I produced represents ecologically sensitive areas encompassed by the proposed project area, while the second map represents this same information alongside a 3D hillshade map alongside snowline and index contours.
Methods
To conduct this analysis, I determined how much of the proposed resort area fell within old growth forests, ungulate range areas, and riparian zones to visualize how much of this development project consists of protected areas. I also looked at the elevation within this region to see if there will be enough snow. I began by acquiring all my data from DataBC and the geography course drive. Then to organize this data I put it in a geodatabase with appropriate naming conventions. Particular layers were then projected into a different coordinate system and all the layers were clipped to the project boundary. This step was taken to ensure consistency and easy visualization of the protected layers within the project. The last step involved mining the data. Within this step I calculated areas of polygons representing protected area, I merged the polygons of all the protected areas to determine the total protected area, I reclassified a DEM based on an elevation of 600 m to determine if there will be enough snow, and I also created a buffer to account for protected areas around streams.
Results/Errors
My results depicted that 37% of this proposed project consists of protected areas. Within this 37%, approximately 8% was representative of ungulate habitat areas, 7% was representative of old growth forest areas, and 27% was representative of riparian management zones around rivers and streams. Furthermore, 31% of this project area is in an elevation lower than 600m indicating that there is a high potential for not enough snow. Overall, these areas are quite significant and indicate to me that this area isn’t well suited for this development project on the basis of environmental protection and a potential lack of snow. The sources of error in my analysis include the addition of the individual percentages of protected areas as overlap of these areas is double counted and my calculated percentages may not be entirely accurate due to rounding.
Future Recommendations
For future analysis I would recommend that there be some analysis done on the actual ecosystems and habitats within these protected areas to determine the health of these environments. It might also be useful to look at research conducted on ungulates, old growth forests, and riparian management zones to determine how these organisms/environments respond to stress. Furthermore, if this ski project is approved, I would recommend that this project be reconsidered for a different area or be constructed in a manner that would minimize detrimental impacts to these protected areas.
Accomplishments/Skills
Some of the tasks completed and subsequent skills and accomplishments gained from this lab include:
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- Filtered data (pertaining to sensitive ecological areas) by clipping it to the project boundary in order to focus on the data of interest
- Calculated areas of sensitive ecological areas within project boundary to determine the feasibility of this proposed project
- Created a variable width buffer of protected areas around streams based on the snowline height to accurately portray areas that are fish bearing
- Conducted a union to unite together all the layers that contain protected areas
- Produced a 3D hillshade for the final map containing sensitive ecological areas alongside index and snowline contours for the purpose of having a realistic view of the terrain