Tag Archives: Geographic Information Science

Environmental Assessment for Proposed Garibaldi Ski Resort

Lab 5: Assessing the Environmental Risks of a Proposed Development Project

EIA_Garibaldi shows an environmental assessment for a proposal to construct a ski resort in Garibaldi Park, at Squamish.

Hillshade_EIA shows the lighting or shading effect of the sun incident on a landscape of varying elevations, a Hillshade.

EIA_ClientMemo includes a client memo that summarizes the methods and results of my analysis, as well as some recommendations to aid my client in the direction and focus of their project proposal.

Personally, I do not think this project should continue unless they find a way to integrate the construction and operation of the ski resort into the original ecosystem, so as to minimize potential environmental risk. This does not differ from what I wrote in my memo, since it would be in my client’s interest to assuredly maintain economic viability by minimizing their project’s environmental risk. Environmental projects are generally complicated because they challenge personal and group ethics, making it difficult to determine whether overall social, economic, and/or cultural benefits outweigh the environmental costs in both the short and long term. This project, in particular, is problematic as it is subject to some degree of scientific (information deficit) and moral (understanding) uncertainty, and the overall complexity and unpredictable responses of natural versus anthropogenic working ecosystems needs to be considered. Information deficits are elements of the “known unknowns,” that is the information we know we do not have, and “unknown unknowns,” that is the information we do not know we don’t have. Moral certainty and uncertainty is then built on this information or lack thereof. System complexity and unpredictability, on the other hand, is a problem evident in this analysis. The near-half percentage of environmental damage from constructing the ski resort alone poses a significant risk against the project. Interconnectedness of ecosystems make anthropogenic interference with them unpredictable and costly. That and with a local percentage of 48.5% of protected area at risk, it is assumed that the overall percentage of risk from a macro-scale environmental assessment (which would include species and ecosystems outside or just surrounding the project boundary area) would be underestimated. Underestimating risk would then give way to great and unpredictable consequences.

 

Accomplishment/s:

  • Assessed potential environmental impacts that would impede long term economic feasibility of the proposed project to be insufficient for approval
  • Recommended alternative action plan for an environmentally integrated business establishment for reduced environmental risk and economic sustainability

Tsunami Danger Analysis of Metro Vancouver

Lab 3: Tsunami Risk Assessment of the Metro Vancouver Area

TsunamiRiskAssessment_FinalMap shows a map of danger zones if a tsunami were to hit Vancouver. These danger zones include land areas that lie within 1 km. of the shoreline and at elevations below 15 meters given a tsunami wave 15 meters high: namely, road networks categorized by road type and affected areas categorized by land use. With this, I labeled ideal points where precautionary signage could be placed to warn the public of these danger zones: labeled on the map as ‘signage.’

As categorized by land use, the tsunami danger zones include health and education facilities. The healthcare facilities at risk include False Creek Residence, Broadway Pentecostal Lodge, Coastwest Community Home, Yaletown House Society, and Villa Cathay Care Home. The education facilities at risk include Ecole Rose Des Vents, St. Anthony of Padua, Heritage 3Rs School, Vancouver Montessori School, False Creek Elementary, Henry Hudson Elementary, Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, St. John International, St Francis Xavier, and the Institute of Indigenous Government. To do this, I used an ‘overlay-intersect’ tool that allows me to create a new map layer that includes the health and education facilities within the boundary of tsunami danger zones: i.e. health and education facilities within 1 km. of the shoreline and at elevations below 15 meters.

Approximately 52% of Vancouver is in danger of a tsunami. To find this, I first used data from a digital elevation matrix (DEM) to highlight areas at elevations below 15 meters and hence, would likely be affected by the tsunami and intersect this data with coastal areas 1 km. away from the shoreline. This gives the total area of tsunami danger zones: 665 km2. Then divide this by the the total area of the area of study (Metro Vancouver).

 

Accomplishment/s:

  • Investigated qualitative and quantitative tsunami risk through calculations and spatial analysis
  • Outlined tsunami danger zones and points of interest for warning signage as an aid to establish tsunami hazard prevention plans
  • Evaluated potential health and education facilities at risk for improved urban planning

 

Vancouver-Ottawa Housing Affordability

Lab 4: Comparing Vancouver and Ottawa Housing Affordability according to housing cost and household income

Affordability shows a visual comparison of Vancouver-Ottawa housing affordability using the manual breaks classification method. As opposed to displaying housing cost, which includes price information alone, ‘affordability’ refers to the ability of a single or cumulative income to purchase a house of some cost. This makes it a better indicator of housing affordability than housing cost as it integrates income and cost information. As determined by the 12th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey 2016 (Wendell Cox Consultancy & Performance Urban Planning: Christchurch, New Zealand), housing affordability rating categories range from a median multiple of under 3.0 being ‘affordable’ to over 5.0 being ‘severely unaffordable.’ This makes ‘affordability’ a potentially good indicator of a city’s ‘livability.’ It is worth noting also, that housing affordability analyses may only give information on single detached housing whereas a city’s livability refers to multiple residential types such as single detached housing, multiplex housing, apartments, condominiums, lane housing, and school housing.

Accomplishment/s:
Analyzed interregional housing affordability according to quantitative survey census tracts

Organized and displayed findings according to differential break classification methods

Quantitative Data Classification for Vancouver Housing Affordability

Lab 4: Spatial Analysis of Vancouver Housing Affordability (using census tracts)

dataclass shows examples of maps utilizing four classification methods in representing housing affordability with Vancouver Census Tracts.

These four classification methods (Natural Break, Standard Deviation, Equal Interval, and Manual Break) help GIS users to display large amounts of complex data simply, as maps. Ultimately, their goal is to relay information in a simple and concise way that caters to the needs and interests of their audience. This could mean withholding information deemed to be unimportant or distracting to the viewers and therefore, GIS users must keep in mind the  different interpretations, complications, and ethical consequences that may arise when organizing data and displaying information in this way. In the case of Vancouver housing affordability, there is a difference between representing the spatial distribution of Vancouver housing affordability as a journalist versus a real estate agent.
A journalist would likely display a map that uses a standard deviation classification method to show average, above-average, and below-average Vancouver housing cost. Since a journalist’s audience would include people other than prospective house buyers, a general idea of average, relatively expensive, and relatively cheap housing would be sufficient and specific prices might not be needed. The ethical implications that arise, however, would be the suggestion of socio-economic exclusion relative to the location of one’s home. A real estate agent, however, would likely opt for a map that uses the natural break classification method so as to be able to relay specific price ranges along with the spatial distribution of similarly priced housing in Vancouver to prospective buyers.

Remotely-sensed Landsat Data for Geographic Analysis

Lab 2: Using Remotely-sensed Landsat Data for Geographic Analysis

Remotely-sensed Landsat allows users to collect geospatial data from a distance, is programmed for capturing data at specific time intervals, and it allows the user to represent this data in a way that compliments and clearly relays guiding information for use of the data. Such characteristics of an information system are important when conducting geographic analyses. First, the automated collection of data makes it easier for geographers to recognize trends (temporal data). Second, data coverage from small to large scale areas aids in the identification of patterns (spatial data). Third, geographers can use Landsat to organize these data to help review patterns and/or trends across space and time.