Implementing a New Fire Hall in the City of Chilliwack
Final Project Abstract:
In our final project of the term, we are UBC Arts Co op students on a work term with the fire department in the City of Chilliwack. The fire department is in need of a new fire hall, as they are having difficulties responding to emergencies that are further out from the city core in a timely manner. We are tasked with the job of implementing a new fire hall, in order to increase fire safety in the region and improve response time for residents in need of emergent aid. Our main goal is to identify an appropriate location for the fire hall that will not disrupt current agricultural land use, yet allow residents to benefit from the additional fire hall. Variables we considered in creating the new fire hall included locations of current fire halls, restricted areas, densely populated areas, main transportation routes, and city parks. The data for our project was sourced from the Open Data Catalogue for the City of Chilliwack. We found 5 locations within the city boundaries of Chilliwack that may be suitable for implementation of a fire hall. We determined the most appropriate location for the fire hall to be Map 4 Figure 5, because the area is in a dense metropolitan and residential zone, close to Highway 1, and does not disrupt restricted lands.
To work efficiently and effectively in our group, we divided up the tasks equally amongst our strengths. I was responsible for assisting in creating the maps, finalizing the maps, assisting with the flowchart, and writing the Abstract and Description of the report. Ellika was in charge of assisting with maps, finalizing the flowchart, and writing the Methodology of the report. Jessica was responsible for assisting with maps, and writing Discussion and Results for the report. Danielle was in charge of assisting with maps, writing Sources of Error, Further Research and Bibliography for the report.
As a result of the process, I learned that finding open data online can be challenging when looking for specific data. We ultimately had to switch our project topic in the early stages of the project because the data we were looking for was all restricted or unattainable.
Map 1: Fire Hall in Relation to Forest Fires in the City of Chilliwack
Map 2: Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) in City of Chilliwack
Map 3: Potential Fire Hall Zone Map
Map 4: Potential Fire Hall Zone Map – Detail View
Final Project Report:
GEOB 270 Final Report – Implementing New Fire Hall in City of Chilliwack