 Land and resource managers have a lot on their plate these days, trying to maintain a balance between the conservation of sensitive ecological and cultural areas and support for a healthy economy. They are often called on to advise on potential land use conflicts, only to face overflowing map cabinets, minimal technical capacity, and blank spaces the size of a small country in the middle of their jurisdiction. A Council initiative to develop a Yukon themed on-line interactive mapping tool may help fill in some of the blanks.
Developed by the Yukon Land Use Planning Council, the 'Yukon Planning Atlas' provides access to an impressive array of high quality data being generated through regional land use planning in Yukon and across northern Canada. "The information being collected about ecologically sensitive areas, important cultural and heritage features, economic development potential and land use management strategies has value beyond our planning processes", says Council Chair Doug Phillips, “Government and Yukon First Nation decision makers need to keep this information in front of them when they consider allowing land uses that could affect our landscapes, our wildlife, and the sustainability of our communities. Public and industry will find it valuable to have regional resource information gathered and displayed at a single website."
The map cabinets of the Council office were overflowing even before work started on the regional plans. Yukon's northern planning regions cover areas of over 60,000 sq km, roughly the size of France. Topographic coverage alone for the North Yukon and Peel Watershed Planning Region would require hundreds of map sheets. Specialized maps and posters line the walls of the Boardroom, a testament to the comprehensive and complex nature of the regional planning task. "We rely heavily on the internet to distribute our planning products", Jeff Hamm, Council's lead on the Atlas project explains. "If we had to generate paper for all of it, we would be severely limited in our capacity to share information. The Peel Watershed regional planning process has already generated several hundred new map layers".
Although much of the data originally comes from Government and First Nations sources, nowhere else has it been assembled in such a detailed regional context, or integrated from as many fields of study into a single composite thematic map. "The Planning Atlas lets us distribute our regional maps to a broad audience in a cost effective manner, while giving all users a way to drill into the details, to produce their own maps from source data, or simply to learn more about Yukon regions where planning is occurring. We are currently loading data from the Peel Watershed planning process, which has generated several hundred new map layers".
The Atlas was originally developed with $70,000 of funding support from GeoConnections, a program of Natural Resources Canada that is developing Canada's geospatial data infrastructure. In 2008, the Atlas project received an additional $25,000 in GeoConnections funding to improve documentation of data sources and develop training materials. "Project assessors, land and resource managers, conservation groups and resource developers may learn how the information assembled for planning could contribute to better informed decisions" hopes Phillips.
The Yukon Planning Atlas can be found at: http://atlas.planyukon.ca.
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