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Bowen Island, British Columbia
Bowen Island at a GlanceBowen Island is part of the Islands Trust, a group of 13 rural communities, and 450 smaller islands in the Georgia Basin/Puget Lowland. The population of the region is 2.6 million people, and is expected to double in the next 10 years. Bowen Island's GeoLibrary project aims to support community-based learning and research, and promote a culture of public engagement and informed decision making. |
Bowen Island has been described as a "community in transition." While it is a traditional recreation area for Vancouver residents, about 40 per cent of its population commutes to Vancouver every day. Bowen Island is also part of the Islands Trust so there is a split between rural and urban mandates.
In late 1999, Bowen Island became the first Island Trusts community to become a municipality. "For that reason, it's an interesting community in which to pose the question of sustainability," says Dr. Murray Journeay, a research scientist with the Geological Survey of Canada and long-time resident of Bowen Island. "Now that we're a municipality, we must deal with those issues."
Almost a decade before, during its Official Community Planning process, several committees were formed to collect data on fish and wildlife, forestry and wild resources, trails and recreation, and other land use information. In the intervening years, however, that information became spread out among governing departments and other organization, and much of the information was never updated. When Bowen Island became a municipality, the idea of collecting all that information together in an electronic library format was revisited. "In terms of planning and addressing the overall issue of sustainability as a community, that communal information was the starting point for moving forward," says Dr. Journeay.
It was at that time that Bowen Island became aware of GeoConnections' Sustainable Communities Initiative (SCI). "The community was amazed that there was a group that understood what happens within a community and was responsive to it," Dr. Journeay explains. With financial assistance from SCI, Bowen has been able to purchase the computer equipment and provide the GIS training that will be crucial to developing their GeoLibrary.
Using local data, the Bowen Island Forest and Water Management Society designed and held a GIS training course for community members. "Those attending the training session had issues and questions about Bowen's future and the GIS skills were a means to address those questions," says Dr. Journeay.
The GeoLibrary wouldn't have been possible without one of Bowen's most exciting partnerships, the Island Pacific School (IPS) for children in grades six to nine. The school has a full computing lab with 28 workstations, so it's ideally suited for community training. The students are now learning about mapping techniques, including GIS, and global positioning systems (GPS).
"The whole philosophy of the school is very Renaissance style," Dr. Journeay explains, "so a lot of the projects that the school undertakes are community-focused." James Juniper, the Information Technology teacher at IPS, concurs with Dr. Journeay's description. "We cover the provincial curriculum, but we want to go beyond it, and the GIS project is a good example of that."
Kellie Rapley, the social studies teacher at the school, has introduced a mapping curriculum that runs concurrently with her history course. Students are mapping the school, using conventional methods at first, then working up to more technological tools. At the same time, they are learning about the history of mapping.
"We're now in the development stages of the project," Mr. Juniper explains. "I asked the students to consider themselves as developers coming to Bowen for the first time and how they would develop the area." Some students envisioned a shopping mall, others recreation areas. "Using the different layers of GIS, they'll have to focus on the effects any changes have on a macro level." For the remainder of the school year, the grade 8 and 9 students will be learning multimedia design so that, with their GIS experience, they can design pages that will display geospatial data on the Bowen Island GeoLibrary. "My idea is to have the students look at one issue, streams and creek mapping for example," Mr. Juniper says. "We can combine high end GPS service with the experts we have in Bowen to work with the students." Working with IPS's science teacher, the students will also conduct water sampling and that information will be added to the library data.
Eventually the GeoLibrary will serve the entire municipality, but Dr. Journeay has already seen interest from two groups: emergency response and stewardship and conservancy groups. "They are the key groups right now, and are already looking for ideas and information."
The Bowen Island GeoLibrary is distinctly different from other SCI pilot projects. "Most communities started with a cultural layer, but ours didn't," says Dr. Journeay. "We're now trying to figure out how to do that - identifying elders in the community and pairing them with IPS students. It'll be the fun part!"