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Success Stories
Everybody loves a winner and here you can discover how partners are using the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI) to protect the environment, make Canada safer, manage public health, and deal with issues of importance to Aboriginal people.
Building the Business Case for Investments in Geospatial Information Technology
Keeping Canada’s infrastructure in good repair requires millions of dollars of investment in people, processes, and technology. Because this infrastructure typically involves roads, utility lines, rights of way, service areas, etc., geospatial information technology (GIT) can play a big part in maximizing the value of these investments. Specifically, GIT can help organizations track and manage their assets, operate more efficiently and effectively, and choose from among competing projects.
CARTS Produces National View of Canada's Protected Areas
CARTS enables Canada to report internationally on its protected areas, which include parks, migratory bird sanctuaries, and ecological reserves managed by a range of governments/organizations.
Ottawa River watershed management transcends borders
A not-for-profit, Canadian environmental organization, Pollution Probe is striving to make it easier for authorities to work together to protect the Ottawa River.
Web-based Mapping Brings Breath of Fresh Air to New Brunswick Lung Association
Thanks to a new web-mapping system based on the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure
(CGDI), Lung Association health officials can now better monitor air quality
and improve health care for Canadians.
Inuit Communities Now on Firm Footing with Land-use Planning Application
When the northern Inuit community of Kujjuaq looked to expand its waste-disposal site, land-use planners produced a multi-layered online map to assess how such an expansion could affect local streams and rivers.
Resource-Management Tool Fires Up BC Forest Service
Each year, British Columbia sees 3,500 wildfires on average. When these fires threaten communities, endangered species habitats, or valuable timberlands, halting their spread becomes vital. This dangerous task falls to the Protection Branch of the BC Forest Service, an organization that now has the ability to use the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI) to help battle 'and conquer' the province's wildfires.
New Environmental Management System Helps Responders Clean Up Spills
The Environmental Emergencies Branch has created a system'the Environmental Emergency Management System or "E2MS"'that capitalizes on the CGDI's vast reservoir of interoperable geographic data layers. By combining spatial-information management tools and technologies with spatial data and information, E2MS uses the CGDI to enable emergency organizations, federal government departments, and provincial emergency-measures agencies to respond more effectively to oil and chemical spills.
University of Ottawa Geography Researchers Utilize GeoBase
Geography researchers utilize GeoBase in climate, telecommunications and visualization research. Michael Sawada of the University of Ottawa's Laboratory for Applied Geomatics and GIS Science (LAGGISS) for projects ranging from telecommunications to climate change as well as for the introduction of geomatics concepts into the teaching curriculum of multiple programs.
Miramichi River Environmental Assessment Committee (MREAC)
Beginning in 2001, MREAC developed this GIS pilot project to target water quality for shellfish harvesting by identifying and assisting in the remediation of pollution sources in a 34 km2 area of the Miramichi River.
Kivalliq Inuit Association (KIA)
The future of Kivalliq, Nunavut rests on its ability to make the best decisions regarding its land and sea resources.
Rural Municipality of Hanover, Manitoba
Hanover's interactive on-line mapping system builds on the municipality's existing parcel mapping system, using upgraded software and hardware, and a 2001 Ikonos high resolution satellite image.
Wikwemikong, Ontario
On the eastern border of Manitoulin Island in Georgian Bay, lies the Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve. Already a leader in geographic information systems (GIS) among First Nations, the Wikwemikong Forestry / Fish & Wildlife Department had computer-generated maps in several different software formats.
Wahnapitae First Nation
The Wahnapitae First Nation, in partnership with GeoConnections' Sustainable Communities Initiative and Natural Resources Canada's Minerals and Metals Sector, and with financial assistance from Indian and Northern Affairs, has embarked on an extensive geographical information systems (GIS) program.
Îles de la Madeleine
The islands are home to over 100 species of birds, including the endangered Piping Plover and the Roseate Tern, which depend on the Islands' lagoons for their survival.
Eel Ground First Nation
With the assistance of Sustainable Communities Initiative (SCI), a component of GeoConnections, the GPS will help Eel Ground bolster their digital maps.
Lheidli T'enneh Nation
In September of 2000, the Lheidli T'enneh Nation set out to create an on-line map resource. The Band Council and membership had been dealing with geographical information systems (GIS) for a number of years, and wanted to expand the use of this technology to allow them a higher level of involvement in the management of the local resources.
"KISS" - Kugluktuk Information Sharing Service
Like many other small northern communities, Kugluktuk, Nunavut, knows firsthand the difficulty of staying connected to its residents, many of whom must leave the community for part of the year for work.
Central Yukon Sustainable Communities Initiative
In terms of GeoConnections' Sustainable Communities Initiative (SCI), the Central Yukon Sustainable Communities Initiative (CYSCI) is unique.
Bowen Island GeoLibrary
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.
Blood Tribe
The Blood Tribe considers land as an extension of their cultural and traditional connection to nature.
Lake Ontario--St. Lawrence River Framework Data Project examines ups and
downs of water levels
GeoConnections is helping stakeholders better understand how fluctuating water
levels may affect their livelihoods, pastimes, and interests.
St. Lawrence River Framework Data Project examines ups and downs of water levels on Lake Ontario
When water levels rise in Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, recreational boaters tend to rejoice. But cottage owners, facing potential erosion of their shorelines, have less reason to celebrate.
Inter-departmental teamwork produces national-scale watershed framework
When Wayne Gretzky picked Canada's 2002 Olympic gold medal hockey team, he chose players with complementary skills. Had he stocked the team only with scorers or entirely with defensive specialists, Canada would have watched the gold medal go to another nation.
Comité ZIP du Sud-de-l'Estuaire fights pollution and coastal erosion with GIS
Farm-animal manure used as agricultural fertilizer can pollute rivers and streams with fecal coliform bacteria.
Manitoba conservation districts overflowing with praise for new GIS
An old Scottish proverb says, "We'll never know the worth of water till the well go dry." The West Souris River Conservation District and the Little Saskatchewan River Conservation District in southwestern Manitoba are using modern geomatics techniques to heed the proverb's wisdom.
Quadra Island Mapping Project charts new course with GeoConnections' Sustainable Communities Initiative
Faced with the collapse of salmon stocks and a forestry industry in decline, residents of Quadra Island, British Columbia, have turned to an advanced geographic information system to help boost tourism and protect the environment.
PCI Geomatics gives geospatial images a web-friendly makeover
By assisting PCI Geomatics to develop software
that enables users to create and integrate maps, photographs, and spatial data,
GeoConnections has played a key role in PCI Geomatics' success, both in
Canada and internationally.
Go for Green blazes new trails in web mapping
Go for Green operates a website called "TrailPAQ" that describes some 3800 trails in Canada.
DM Solutions scales the summit of the open source web mapping world
Although this insight may offer some emotional relief, Canada's physicians and public health professionals use the FluWatch site for purposes of a more practical nature: tracking flu activity throughout the country and predicting its path.
Alberta Métis leverage geomatics to manage natural resources
Many northern Canadian communities sit amidst valuable woodlands or on top
of rich oil and gas deposits.
B.C. Government relies on information sharing to protect resources
Sustaining B.C.'s fisheries is one goal of the Cooperative Ocean Information Network Pacific (COINPacific). A joint initiative of MSRM, GeoConnections, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), and the Canadian Centre for Marine Communications (CCMC), COINPacific makes ocean information available over the Internet. People will be able to use this information to better balance ocean industries with environmental responsibilities, develop Canadian ocean technology, and promote the Canadian marine industry locally and internationally.
Bay of Fundy Marine Resource Centre plots success with GIS
Each year, dozens of oil tankers move through the Bay of Fundy off the Nova Scotia coast to and from oil refineries in St. John, New Brunswick. What would happen should a tanker spill its cargo?
Grande Prairie Region Improves Emergency Response Tools
Paramedics in Alberta's Grande Prairie region can now reach accident victims more easily... thanks to a Sustainable Communities Initiative (SCI) project involving the Grande Prairie Regional Emergency Medical Service (EMS), the City of Grande Prairie geographic information system (GIS) department and TELUS Geomatics.
GeoConnections helps Aguanish bridge its winter blues
For most of the year, the communities in and around the North Shore of the St. Lawrence River rely on snowmobile roads for the transportation of goods and services, and for communication between towns and villages.