For our final GIS project, myself along with 2 colleagues examined the proposed Ajax Mine in Kamloops, BC. We set out to perform an environmental assessment on the mine and determine whether or not the project should be approved from an environmental standpoint. Throughout the project we analyzed wind patterns in conjunction with potential dust and sediment transport, as well as possible acid contaminant spillage into surrounding waterways.
Our group was able to effectively complete the project by splitting up tasks that we could perform on our own (such as locating data sets), and then coming together to perform analysis as a group in ArcGIS.
Throughout the project it was interesting to see how you can take separate data sets and bring them together into one cohesive model. We were able to identify rivers that were particularly at risk, as well as parts of the City of Kamloops that might be susceptible to dust pollution. One aspect that I think we could have done better is plan out exactly what analysis we were going to perform at the end of the mapping process. While we did have an idea of where we wanted to go with the project, it would have been useful to have a list of specific ArcGIS functions that we were going to utilize throughout, rather than simply applying the functions we saw fit at the time.
I also learned that publicly available data specific to a particular issue can be hard to find. This led us to take advantage of a number of different data sets in order to cross-reference accuracy and content.