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Ecosystem-based Geospatial Planning Tool for Canada's Inland Sea

This project will lay the foundation for a web-based ecosystem-management tool for governments, managers, and other stakeholders in the Bras d'Or Lake ecosystem of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia.

Users will employ the tool to predict and manage the effects of agriculture, forestry, mining, and tourism in the Bras d'Or watershed. The tool will predict these effects on estuarine community structures such as eelgrass meadows and oyster beds, and on ecosystem goods and services such as fishery production, sewage assimilation, and recreation. Understanding these effects will enable stakeholders to make decisions that better reconcile ecological and economically sustainable development in the Bras d'Or watershed-a benefit to the area's residents, tourists, and businesses.

The project will generate a series of Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI)-compliant data layers and numerical models of linked terrestrial and marine ecosystem processes that draw on existing data.

The ecosystem management tool will be used to generate a periodically updated "Bras d'Or Report Card" that depicts changes in ecosystem health. The tools will also be used to develop a model-driven scenario generator that shows how different watershed land uses affect these changes.


Primary Partner: Bras d'Or Institute for Ecosystem Research, Cape Breton University  Sydney,  Nova Scotia;

Partners:
Environment Canada
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Natural Resources Canada
Dalhousie University
Unama'ki Institute of Natural Resources
Collaborative Environmental Planning Initiative for the Bras d'Or Lakes
Cape Breton municipalities
U.S. Geological Survey Atlantic Coastal Action Programme-Cape Breton
Bras d'Or Stewardship Society
Atlantic Coastal Zone Information Steering Committee
Province of Nova Scotia
ADI Ltd.
HyperspectraI Imaging Ltd.
Nova Scotia Environment
Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources

Funding From GeoConnections: $145,450.00 ( 44.0 %)

Estimated Inception Date: November, 2008

Estimated Completion Date: March, 2010

Deliverables from this project benefitted the following provinces: Nova Scotia;