=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2323/SKI-Canada-2019-7-1-3
|storemode=property
|title=A Web GIS Platform for Environmental Livelihood Value Assessment in Northeastern British Columbia
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2323/SKI-Canada-2019-7-1-3.pdf
|volume=Vol-2323
|authors=Felix Tang,Honghao Yu,David Natcher,Weiping Zeng,Thang Phung,Xiaolei Yu,Yanjuan Li,Fangfei Lu,Abigael Rice,Ana-Maria Bodgan,Jason Disano,Scott Bell
}}
==A Web GIS Platform for Environmental Livelihood Value Assessment in Northeastern British Columbia==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2323/SKI-Canada-2019-7-1-3.pdf
Spatial Knowledge and Information Canada, 2019, 7(1), 3
A Web GIS Platform for Environmental
Livelihood Value Assessment in Northeastern
British Columbia
FELIX TANG1, HONGHAO YU2, DAVID NATCHER3, WEIPING ZENG2, THANG PHUNG2, XIAOLEI YU1,
YANJUAN LI4, FANGFEI LU4, ABIGAEL RICE3, ANA-MARIA BODGAN5, JASON DISANO5, SCOTT BELL1
1Geography and Planning, scott.bell@usask.ca,
2The Spatial Initiative, wez948@mail.usask.ca,
3Agricultural and Resource Economics, david.natcher@usask.ca,
4Electrical and Computer Engineering,
5Social Sciences Research Laboratories, anb894@mail.usask.ca,
University of Saskatchewan, Canada
ABSTRACT 1) Establishment of government
relationship with First Nations living in
Traditional practices of the West Moberly Treaty 8 land in BC to support environmental
First Nations (WMFN), the Saulteau First decision-making;
Nations (SFN), and the McLeod Lake Indian 2) Identify and validate current and
Band (MLIB) in northeast British Columbia relevant social, economic, and ecological
were examined in a collaboration between the values affected by industrial development;
province of British Columbia (BC) and the 3) Identify and establish management
University of Saskatchewan. A study of thresholds or benchmarks that trigger
environmental livelihood of the three First management actions; and
Nations examines a way of life that heavily 4) Work toward the desired outcomes
relies on environmental factors. A database through the development of scenarios that
containing the information gathered was best safeguard the environmentally based
developed into an integrated 2D and 3D Web livelihoods of First Nations communities.
geographic information system (GIS)
platform. The user-friendly Web GIS allows The RSEA aims to gather information about
data, along with social and ecological changes, the livelihood of the BC First Nations residing
to be updated quickly. in Treaty 8 land. Environmental livelihood
involves activities such as hunting, fishing,
gathering, and other land-based activities that
1. Introduction comprise a critical part of the First Nations’
way of life. We examine the dependence on
I In 2016, a Regional Strategic Environmental
nature of the bands as well as the industrial
Assessment (RSEA) was initiated by the
developments in the area (Biggs et al., 2015).
British Columbia (BC) government. The study
area contained a section of Treaty 8 land. 1
To advance First Nations-to-government
This assessment included the following
relations, an RSEA Management Committee
objectives:
was formed with representation from the
West Moberly First Nations (WMFN), the
Saulteau First Nations (SFN), and the McLeod
1 Treaty 8 was signed in 1899. It comprises a vast Lake Indian Band (MLIB). The mandate of
territory in northeastern British Columbia and the RSEA Management Committee is to
extends into northern Alberta and northwestern generate trusted information regarding
Saskatchewan. cumulative industrial developmental impacts
2 A Web GIS Platform for Environmental Livelihood Value Assessment
on Treaty 8 territory. The information and interactive use (Hickok, Joel A. 2014).
gathered will be used to mitigate potentially Public access to the Web GIS platform will be
adverse impacts on First Nation members’ released in the near future.
rights and livelihoods.
2. Methods and Data
At the request of the RSEA Management 2.1 Data
Committee, we undertook to build a Web GIS
platform for Environmental Livelihood Value First Nations’ research assistants
Assessment in northeastern British Columbia administered surveys to First Nations’
(hereafter, the Web GIS BC project). Our households. The surveys identified: (1) The
research documented the extent to which total edible food weight and the number of
First Nations communities rely on natural wildlife species harvested by First Nation
resources and the conditions required for the members over a 12 month period; (2) The
continuance of their subsistence activities. extent to which traditional foods are shared
This research provides baseline livelihood between First Nation households; (3) Harvest
data that can be used to assess how industrial areas by food weight, species, family, and
and conservationist land uses might affect the community; (4) Areas within traditional areas
environmental livelihoods of First Nation of each First Nations band that are no longer
members. These data can support informed used, whether due to competing land uses or
decision making by First Nations and the other constraints; and (5) Changes in the
Government of British Columbia. This landscape that First Nations’ members have
research represents an opportunity for First experienced throughout their lifetimes.
Nations to protect vital aspects of their land-
based culture and to work with the Responses to survey questions were manually
Government of British Columbia in a more entered on a database. Geospatial data (study
meaningful and informed manner when boundary, infrastructure, road network, water
making future planning decisions. bodies, and a base map) were collected from
an open-source database. Table 1 shows data
We describe the integrated 2D and 3D Web features and sources.
GIS platform developed for the RSEA
decision-making process. The Web GIS 2.2 Methods
platform enhances access to environmental
The Web GIS platform was developed with
Table 1: Data features and sources ArcGIS technologies that include data, server,
and application tiers.
Data Feature Data source
Data tier. Spatial and non-spatial attribute
Study Area TSL Laboratory data for the study area were recorded in a
First Nation Communities BC First Nations data tier using a relational database
Animal Harvest BC First Nations management system (RDBMS)—the Microsoft
Harvesting Barriers BC First Nations
SQL Server supported by ArcGIS 9.3. An
Hunting licence BC First Nations
enterprise geodatabase comprises storage
Food sharing TSL Laboratory
Road network Statistics Canada
management, definitions of data attributes,
Water bodies ESRI multiuser transaction processing, and
Base Map ESRI complex query processing. On the
and livelihood data and facilitates exploration, geodatabase, ArcSDE technology was
visualization, analysis, and dissemination of integrated with ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS
the output of the environmental livelihood Server, and used as the gateway between
survey (Kienberger, Stefan, et al. 2013). The ArcGIS applications and the RDBMS.
Web GIS platform functions across browsers,
including mobile devices, promoting dynamic
A Web GIS Platform for Environmental Livelihood Value Assessment 3
Figure 1. Architecture of the Web GIS application
Server tier. ArcGIS Server 10.6 was used to friendly and responsive Web GIS. ArcGIS API
map services through an IIS Web Server on a for JavaScript supports similar approaches for
Windows Server 2012 R2 system. The ArcGIS working layers, renderers, tasks, geometry,
server can provide spatial services such as pop-ups, and navigation in both 2D and 3D
mapping, network analysis, Web feature views. Figure 1 shows the architecture of the
service (WFS), Web mapping service (WMS), Web GIS application and the components at
Web map tile service (WMTS), geodatabase each tier.
queries, geo-processing, and Web processing.
These services can be accessed from When users access the Web GIS application
applications and devices, and from a for the first time, the IIS Web Server will
JavaScript Web-client through Hypertext handle the user’s request from the browser
Transfer Protocol. and respond with a Web page that includes
the ArcGIS API for JavaScript. When ArcGIS
Application tier. ArcGIS API for JavaScript API for JavaScript is loaded and running, it
was used with front-end technologies such as sends requests to the ArcGIS Server. It then
HTML5, JavaScript, JQuery, Web GIS, and presents integrated 2D and 3D maps on a
CSS to develop an integrated 2D and 3D user- browser in JSON, PNG, or JPG format. Figure
friendly and responsive Web GIS. ArcGIS API 2 shows the data flow of an integrated 2D and
for JavaScript supports similar approaches for 3D Web GIS application.
CSS to develop an integrated 2D and 3D user-
4 A Web GIS Platform for Environmental Livelihood Value Assessment
Figure 2. Data flow of the 2D and 3D Web GIS application.
Figure 3. GIS application and 3D Web-GIS visualization for Environmental Livelihood Value
Assessment
The Environmental Livelihood Value Assessment additional plug-ins. 3D Web GIS is able to use
Application was built with ArcGIS API for map images and feature layers that exist in 2D
JavaScript 4.9, which can build Web applications Web GIS. For example, the “harvest zones” layer
that combine 2D and 3D without installing in the Web GIS BC project can be viewed in both
A Web GIS Platform for Environmental Livelihood Value Assessment 5
2D and 3D. The 2D view is necessary because the hunting data in 3D, and to access 3D support
3D view cannot display complicated results (e.g., devices on the Internet, regardless of the user’s
client-side statistical queries, Identify Task). hardware, operating system, and pro-GIS
Figure 3 shows the data and functions of the 2D software. Figure 4 shows zone O20, a study zone
and 3D Web GIS visualizations. in which the WMFN is directly located at, in
different 3D views. Figure 4 answers questions
such as (1) Where are people harvesting,
3. Results especially moose harvesting, and where are the
main harvesting hotspots? (2) What is the
The Web GIS was developed involving integrated average distance traveled to harvest? (3) which
2D and 3D base maps, a Table of Contents, and zones have the highest harvest? Harvest
popup information windows to supplement location maps were produced based on 100
visualization of the survey component of the Web households that completed the environmental
GIS BC project. livelihood survey. Spatial analysis tools were used
to investigate harvesting patterns.
3.1 Integrated 2D and 3D Base Maps
The Web GIS contains 10 base maps, including
satellite imagery and topographic maps. It is
predicted that the supply and availability of
satellite and aerial imagery will double in the near
future through Web portals and online GIS
services. The base maps can be changed by
editing the legends.
Our Web framework allows users to access
Figure 4. 3D view of Zone O20
6 A Web GIS Platform for Environmental Livelihood Value Assessment
3.3 Data viewer popup window
By applying online mapping technology, 2D map
information can be transferred to a 3D model Additional information regarding a zone can be
(Alias Abdul-Rahman, Morakot Pilouk, 2008). accessed by clicking on ‘zone of interest.’ The data
The 2D view is the default when the map is viewer contains all the information regarding the
opened and the 3D view can be entered by zone with respect to the area of study toggled in
clicking the 3D button on the legend. Once the 3D the Table of Contents. The data viewer also
view is entered, the legend replaces the ‘expand’ contains the information in pie chart form. The
and the ‘default’ map view buttons to ‘pan’ and data viewer is an alternative way to view the raw
‘rotate’ buttons, respectively. map data.
A button with four selectable options is located on
the legend to locate the three First Nations and to
return to the 2D view. Figure 5 shows a 3D view
of the study area.
Figure 5. 3D map view of the Web GIS BC Project.
3.2 Table of Contents.
A Table of Contents on the right-hand side of the
map has eight categories of datasets: Study area,
Harvested by weight, Harvested by number, Figure 6. Table and pie-chart in the Web GIS map.
Moose harvest and hunting license, Constraints, The data viewer changes with the parameters
Food sharing network, Spatial analysis, selected in the Table of Contents. For ‘moose
Infrastructure and others. When users click on a harvest,’ the map and the data viewer are
desired category, the default layers and legends of displayed by hunting region (Figure 6). The
the dataset are toggled to facilitate number of moose kills is categorized by hunting
comprehension. Users can select the data they region (per year), and is shown in text and bar
wish to view. Clicking on the triangle on the left graph form (Figure 7).
side of the text will expand the selection. A click
on the eye symbol will toggle the selected data to
display on the map. A legend is available for each
layer.
The Web GIS platform supports spatial analysis,
including hotspot maps that are toggled via
‘Spatial analysis.’ Other features include the
number of moose harvests per hunting region,
and a food sharing map showing the movement of
food being shared within and among the three Figure 7. Graph display in data viewer.
First Nations being studied.
A Web GIS Platform for Environmental Livelihood Value Assessment 7
4. Conclusion Control. International Journal of Health
Geographics.
This study developed an integrated 2D and 3D Hickok, J. A. (2014). A Web GIS framework for
Web GIS platform to evaluate the environmental simulating pre-incident planning.
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British Columbia to better understand the extent Karnatak, H. C. (2007). Multicriteria Spatial
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Acknowledgements https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2
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Funding for this research was provided by the
Kraak, M.-J. (2004). The role of the map in a
British Columbia Ministry of Forests, Lands and
Web-GIS environment. Journal of
Natural Resource Operations. We are grateful for
Geographical Systems, 6:83–93.
their support and for the support provided by the
doi:10.1007/s10109-004-0127-2
RSEA Management Committee. The authors also
M.Biggs, E. (2015, December). Sustainable
thank First Nations members who participated in
development and the water–energy–food
this project, and staff at the Spatial Initiative, the
nexus: A perspective on livelihoods.
Social Sciences Research Laboratories (SSRL),
Environmental Science & Policy, 54, 389-
and the University of Saskatchewan.
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