Abstract:

The western side of British Columbia is highly susceptible to earthquakes due to its location on the Cascadia subduction zone along the Ring of Fire. Focused on the City of Vancouver, this project analyzes and assesses the risks posed by this natural disaster and the city’s preparedness. Aided by data obtained through Statistics Canada and the City of Vancouver’s open data catalogue, our team created three maps. The first map shows the surface geology of the Greater Vancouver Area, the second map visually represents which schools have and have not been seismically upgraded within the city, and the third map demonstrates the location of disaster support hubs as well as our proposition for additional hubs. Through our representation of the surface geology, we were able to delineate hazard zones within the city. Because Vancouver is moderately safe, further research allowed us to identify different risks, such as Seismically Upgraded (or not) schools in our second map. In our third map, the preparedness of the city was assessed by creating buffers and identifying areas that would not be supported should there be a disaster. These maps were useful in determining which places in the city need spots for safe gathering when citizens require support services. With this information in mind, we propose that there should be 9 additional hub locations.

Project Management:

Our group was very efficient. We had ideas for a map based on science and maps based on the social aspect of our topic. We split up into 2 groups of 2 and one pair worked primarily on the social aspects of our project while the other worked on the geological map and conclusions. We had a group chat on Facebook and there was at least one person working on the project almost every day. We had very good communication and initiative within our group.

What I learned:

I learned a lot about Vancouver’s procedures that are in place in case of a disaster. I did not know that there were planned safety support hubs all over the city and I found it very interesting. It makes me wonder how Toronto (the city that I’m from) would deal with a disaster and if we have a similar action plan to Vancouver’s, even though we are not as susceptible to earthquakes. I also learned a lot about the geology of the GVA and how earthquakes affect different types of sediment and geological materials.

I also learned that group projects can be a lot of fun with the right people, open communication and lots of planning as I have had bad experiences with group projects in the past. Arc-GIS is sometimes difficult to navigate and wrap my head around but I learned that there are many online resources that can help with understanding the program better.