Riparian Area Management in the Okanagan Valley
The Okanagan Valley, BC is BC’s fastest growing city. It is a region in BC where much agricultural production occurs, as well as possessing habitat for many freshwater wildlife species. The objective of our analysis was to identify where the major priority riparian restoration and management zones are within the region. We gathered data from BCData on fish ranges present in the region, river data, and high-ranking conservation zones. Along with major road data collected from the G drive, we compiled all data within a project boundary of the entire Okanagan Valley to illustrate where the most attention for riparian restoration must go.
Agricultural land at a large commercial scale can be detrimental to stream health – manure runoff and other input for crop yield can damage the well-being of a stream. It is for this reason we implemented 2km buffers for riparian areas in proximity to Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR). Fish ranges had buffers of 500m and terrestrial wildlife, buffers of 200m. These buffer measurements were not arbitrary, but recommended by the Ministry of Environment in BC for the entire province – although it is not directly enforced in Okanagan.
In a group of 4, the tasks were delegated according to interest. We all contributed to the GIS analysis done on ArcMap 10.1, and divided the sections of the report among the 4. Formatting and referencing were all taken on by each member as well.
Designing one’s own project on GIS is a powerful skill, but also daunting depending on how large the project you take on is. I realized not all data is suitable to match up to the project idea you have in your head at any scale. One must go through the available data and decide for oneself how honestly they can deliver the objective of their project with the data available.
I learned new tools in GIS such as editing your own project boundary and selecting species from a wildlife data file that are endangered and placing them on a new layer all together. I think there is still much to be learned on GIS, which will mostly come with experience doing it more than anything, but I got a good introductory to the fundamentals by taking GEOB 270.