Lack of data:
Some of the greatest limitations to this project have been issues relating to sourcing the required data. We had particular difficulties finding a high-quality land cover map; the map we were able to obtain only included information in areas regarding the main urban centre of Sechelt or closely related areas. Due to this, the land cover information for the rest of the area of interest had to be extrapolated and classified as simply open area which resulted in a substantial bias. Additionally, as mentioned in the discussion, the land cover data was relatively dated making it less reliable for newer projects in the area including a new well development.
Another data limitation was the extent of the soil layer due to the way such data is stored and obtained from the Government of British Columbia. This meant that we had no data of soils in the northern region of the municipality and no way of extrapolating this due to the way soils behave and their highly-localised spatial distribution. This meant that we couldn’t evaluate the northern area and it had to be left out of the analysis.
Further analysis that would have strengthened the project:
To improve the reliability of the investigation, additional information regarding possible pollution sources in the municipality could have been sourced. In addition, information regarding the top soil layer, which greatly affects the infiltration rate of precipitation and therefore the recharge rate of the aquifer, could have benefited the analysis.
Moreover, the political and social inclusiveness of the project could be improved by incorporating land ownership into the analysis. In particular that of the Sechelt First Nation Band Land, which is managed separately from the Sechelt local government. The project would need to make sure that the well would not be located in an area over which the First Nation community has jurisdiction, however we were not able to find the boundary information at a useful resolution.