Kootenay Spatial Data Partnership

SGRC Lead Researcher: Ian Parfitt

SGRC Researchers: Chris Gray, Paulo Travassos, Colin Dyck

Collaborating Agencies:  Integrated Land Management Bureau (Province of BC), Regional Forest Licensees. 

Kootenay Spatial Data Partnership (KSDP) is a partnership between BC's Integrated Land Management Bureau and forest licensees in the Kootenays region with a main goal of increasing quality and reducing cost of developing Forest Stewardship Plans (FSPs) by making available the most up-to-data spatial layers and associated metadata.

In partnership with KSDP, the SGRC have developed and hosted a number of critical applications and services to serve the mandate of the KSDP including:

kootenayspatial.ca - KSDP Website Hosting

This website contains valuable accessible information related to KSDP such as strategic and operational documents, organization and tracking of updated spatial layers, and contact and other ancillary information for the the KSDP.   

KSDP Web Mapping Service - Interactive Mapping

The purpose of this mapping service is to display the spatial layers related to FSPs in the Kootenays in order to directly address the needs of forest licensees. Key GIS data layers are accessed through this interactive mapping website which serves an estimated 50 spatial layers, containing the most up-to-date, quality-controlled spatial layers with the ability to download specific layers directly from the application.

HLP (Higher-level Plan) Reporting Suite - Advanced Spatial Reporting

The HLP Reporting Suite provides forest licensees the ability to monitor and adjust dynamic specific forest values in their operating area to ensure they are meeting the primary forest planning objectives and targets governed by regional higher-level plans (for example, the Kootenay Boundary Land Use Plan). Specifically, the reporting suite is set of models and reports reflecting the land use rules outlined in the October 2002 Kootenay-Boundary HLPO document and subsequent variance orders. The reports summarize the land base in terms of its seral distribution, how areas could be reserved to meet targets, and what areas would remain after satisfying those targets.

The suite also produces thematic tables that can be linked to the spatial data within a mapping application for visualizing the results of the models; this can assist in finding new harvest opportunities.