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Quadra Island Mapping Project charts new course with GeoConnections' Sustainable Communities Initiative
Faced with the collapse of salmon stocks and a forestry industry in decline, residents of Quadra Island, British Columbia, have turned to an advanced geographic information system to help boost tourism and protect the environment.
Home to 3500 people, idyllic Quadra Island sits between the B.C. mainland and Vancouver Island, near the town of Campbell River. Here, residents and visitors alike can hike 200 km of trails through rolling forested hills, explore sheltered coves by sea kayak, or dive along the island's coast and discover its abundant marine life.
Sustaining the island's natural beauty, resources, and recreation options is a primary goal of the Quadra Island Mapping Project (QIMP), a program run by four non-profit societies involved in salmon stock enhancement, land conservation, recreation, and plant and animal preservation. By gathering, archiving, analyzing, and disseminating information on the biophysical and geophysical resources of Quadra Island, project members intend to help the island not only survive, but prosper.
"We felt that long-term sustainability planning would enable us to mitigate Quadra Island's economic losses associated with the collapse of the Pacific salmon fishery and the drop in forestry activity," says Mr. Alvin Tye, director of the Quadra Island Mapping Project.
Boosting professionalism, credibility, and impact
The trouble was that the QIMP lacked the resources to present its views to government and industry as professionally as it would have liked. For instance, if the Quadra Island community wanted to persuade the B.C. Ministry of Forests that development should occur in a certain way to avoid encroaching on the salmon habitat, Mr. Tye and his associates would have had to sift through a room full of paper maps, graph paper, and aerial photos to prepare their case.
"Pulling the information together was time consuming," says Mr. Tye, "and despite our best efforts, we often didn't appear professional to industry and government. We realized that to get our viewpoints considered legitimately, we needed up-to-date data and professional maps."
After learning about the GeoConnections Sustainable Communities Initiative (SCI) from colleagues implementing SCI pilot projects in Alberta, Mr. Tye and his associates put together a proposal for funding that SCI approved. The funding allowed QIMP to purchase databases and software tools to help them create professional-looking maps-ones equivalent in quality and sophistication to those used by the regional district and government departments.
"The SCI program's been wonderful," says Mr. Tye. "It has helped us provide our community with the hardware, software, data, and training to enhance community planning. And it's given us additional credibility with both the public and the various regulatory and planning agencies that we deal with."
Protecting the ecosystem and promoting tourism
QIMP also uses its newfound map-mapping capability when dealing with island residents. For example, after a landowner submitted a proposal to develop a wetland property, QIMP conducted an environmental impact analysis that revealed the development could aversely affect several "red-listed" or rare bird species. Once the landowner understood the scope of the potential problems, he agreed to postpone the development for several years and then scale it back substantially.
The SCI also assisted QIMP to purchase a hand-held global positioning system (GPS) unit. QIMP called upon the Katimavik youth group to photograph and collect GPS data on various recreational features such as hiking trails, boat ramps, emergency telephones, recreational areas, picnic grounds, and so on. QIMP incorporated the photos and GPS coordinates into its mapping system. The result? A computer map that enables users to click on certain features and call up photos of those features. "We intend to publish this map on the Web," says Mr. Tye, "and enable tourists to better see what Quadra Island offers and to help them plan their visits."
Taking greater control of the community's future
This project is just one example of how GeoConnections' Sustainable Communities Initiative has equipped the Quadra Island Mapping Project to better meet its objectives. "Thanks to the SCI program, we've trained several people to use geographic information system (GIS) tools, which helps the community control local planning," says Mr. Tye. "We don't have to rely on regional agencies to provide us with information-local residents can gather and analyze it themselves. That capability enables communities to take greater control of their futures."
Mr. Tye sees an even more involved role for its geographic information system ahead: "We're going to integrate it more into the community's decision-making process, and expand the range and scope of the issues we tackle," he says. "It's hard to imagine a rural community that wouldn't benefit from participating in GeoConnections' Sustainable Communities Initiative."
| GeoConnections is a national partnership initiative led by Natural Resources Canada to build the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI) and make Canada's geospatial databases, tools, and services readily accessible on-line. |