Howe Sound Terrestrial Atlas
In order to make informed decisions around land use management and conservation efforts that are holistic in nature, baseline information is required to understand the context of an area. Inspired by the Howe Sound Marine Reference Guide, this project aims to create an online mapping application that will include open access data related to biodiversity conservation and land use in the Biosphere Region. Data compiled in the Atlas supports evidence-based decision making and helps identify knowledge gaps and areas where conservation and restoration efforts could be focused.
Watch this tutorial on how to navigate and find data layers narrated by Sam Wing, OECM Projects Manager
The Biosphere Region has an extensive history of anthropogenic effects on the environment, including resource extraction, recreation, cultural uses, conservation, and restoration efforts. Although many of these activities are documented well, the data and information is spread out over various databases, formats, and names. This creates a barrier to those looking to find information specific to this region and delays decision making as the information required to make land management decisions needs to be compiled.
The Marine Reference Guide (MRG), created by the Marine Stewardship Initiative, served as inspiration for this project. The MRG is a “centralized interactive map that pulls together information about the Sound’s ocean to support informed decision-making, collaborative management, marine spatial planning, and community education”. The creation of the MRG further highlighted the importance of visualization tools and the need to develop something complementary for the terrestrial environment of Átl'ḵa7tsem/Howe Sound.
Planning and development began in April 2023, with research on best practices and database design has been completed to inform the development of the application. By August 2023 - The Project Team completed a data dictionary collating the datasets that will be displayed in the Terrestrial Atlas. In February 2024, The Project Team is collaborating with application developers at ESRI to develop the web mapping application that will be the Terrestrial Atlas. The first iteration of the Terrestrial Atlas has been completed and the Project Team and ESRI was underway with user acceptance testing of the web application in April/May 2024 -
In June 2024, the Atlas was live, but it doesn’t stop here. As new data layers are identified they will be added to the Atlas. If you have relevant biodiversity, land use, or conservation data that you would like to see hosted by this application, please Samantha Wing, OECM Projects Manager at OECMprojects@howesoundbri.org
This project was made possible with funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada. The HSBRIS team contracted ESRI Canada, and the application was created using Experience Builder. All data sources are linked to the original source, and updates are in real time.