Tuesday 29 October, 2024
Space, the final frontier. Or is it? Although many people are fascinated by space, most are relatively unaware of how space technologies pervade their everyday life. From global positioning systems (GPS) and satellite communications to weather forecasting and monitoring the health of crops or the extent of sea ice, the standard of living we currently enjoy is fundamentally dependent on satellites and space technology. Space is becoming even more important in monitoring the changing climate, p...
The Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI) defines human footprint as the visible alteration or conversion of native ecosystems to temporary or permanent residential, recreational, agricultural, or industrial landscapes. It also includes land that is periodically reset to earlier successional conditions by industrial activities such as forestry harvest areas and seismic lines. To monitor and map human footprint across Alberta, the ABMI, in partnership with the Alberta Human Footprin...
Sessions: Human footprint datasets for Canada: mapping and monitoring in support of land and resource managementDisturbance is a key component of boreal-forest ecosystems, impacting their structure and functions. In Alberta, disturbances are both natural and anthropogenic, including > 30,000 sqkm of harvest areas. The recovery of all types of forest disturbance influences not only local landscapes, but also carbon dynamics and biodiversity. In the face of a changing climate, the imp...
From ancient cave drawings depicting hunting grounds to hand-sketched layouts of backyard gardens, humans conceptualize space through map making. Maps serve both to capture what exists on the landscape and to plan future uses by intentionally defining where specific activities can happen. Modern satellite technology creates geospatial datasets that can contribute to current and proposed land use management planning, all underpinned by the pursuit of the public good.Background
Maintaining undisturbed habitat is key to the recovery strategy of the Woodland Caribou boreal population. Seismic lines have been identified as a human footprint feature that requires specific attention for habitat restoration in part because linear features are linked to increases in the predation rates of caribou as they provide lines of sight and easy transportation routes for predators. It is estimated that there are hundreds of thousands of kilometers of seismic lines within Alberta (AB...
Too often, when discussing the value proposition of geospatial data, we focus in on raw data or output products without spending a lot of time in the juicy middle of data throughputs. That is to say that modern geospatial is leaving a lot of value on the table and thus limiting our ability to good with our data by: -> Focusing too heavily on the capturing aspect of geospatial technologies;-> Ignoring or discounting analytical capabilities of geospatial technologie...
Large-scale habitat inventories are necessary for understanding how human land-use, natural disturbances (e.g., fire) and climate change are influencing ecological processes, species declines and how restoration can address these changes. Within the boreal forest of Alberta, Canada anthropogenic habitat alteration, also referred to as human footprint or the physical disturbance of a landscape as a result of human activity, covers over 19% of the land area. Much of this human footprint is not ...
Session Human footprint datasets for Canada: mapping and monitoring in support of land and resource managementHuman activities have disturbed biodiversity, ecosystems, and ecological processes over the last century. Given the growing trends of habitat loss and biodiversity decline, understanding patterns of human pressures has become a crucial element of conservation planning. In this context, cumulative pressure mapping is used to quantify the extent and intensity of multiple pressure...
Regional and provincial conservation efforts require detailed human pressure mapping to manage and mitigate human impacts effectively. However, in the province of British Columbia (BC), existing efforts to map human pressures have faced significant challenges, particularly in adequately capturing their full extent. The Geospatial Centre of Biodiversity Pathways at the University of Northern British Columbia, in collaboration with the West Moberly First Nations and the Alberta Biodiversity Mon...
High-resolution regional climate modeling from the Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative (PARC) offers future climate projections at 3 km spatial resolution and sub-daily temporal scales. This presentation provides an overview of how this data is leveraged within a simple GIS framework to enhance climate adaptation, using a vulnerability risk assessment of Edmonton Regional Municipality as an example.
Wednesday 30 October, 2024
Join us for an engaging panel discussion on Geo-Entrepreneurship, featuring distinguished experts from geospatial consultancies, geomatics communication and event companies, and geomatics software firms. This session is designed for those interested in the intersection of geospatial technology and entrepreneurship.Journey to Entrepreneurship: Hear from our panelists on their motivations for leaving traditional careers to pursue entrepreneurial ventures in the geospatial field. Dis...
Traditional teaching methods in post-secondary often included using powerpoint presentations and writing on a white or blackboard. The newer generations of students have been exposed to different ways of learning and this requires instructors or teaching professors to change their way of presenting information to help the students learn it at a deeper level. Using a radical constructivism philosophy, the students are required to engage in the material in their own way, connect wit...
How do hydrographic surveys, aerial Remote Sensing and GIS help with environmental efforts? Terra explores 3 projects that use a combination of different sensors and visualizations to achieve these goals. The projects include a rapid marine data collection to support a trapped Orca, an ongoing canopy assessment to aid in city planning with environmental monitoring and remediation of a legacy mine.
In our rapidly evolving urban landscapes, inadequate accessibility maps leave many people with disabilities facing significant challenges. This talk begins by illustrating the problem with real examples of accessibility fails on platforms like Google Maps. Attendees are encouraged to check accessibility features on their phones, highlighting current gaps.We will then explore the necessity of specialized tools for meaningful navigation and destination planning for people with disabiliti...
