Ministry of Environment
Terrain
Terrain Information Program Updates
This page contains updates on the terrain information program at the Ministry of Environment. Feedback and comments may be sent to: soilterrain@victoria1.gov.bc.ca.
For email notification of Terrain Information Program Updates please join our terrain list listserv.
New Terrestrial Ecosystem Information Website
The Terrestrial Ecosystem Information team is developing a new Terrestrial Ecosystem Information Website which will eventually integrate the Terrain, Soils, Ecology/Ecosystems and Wildlife Habitat Ratings/Species Distribution Mapping websites. Step one has been to create new, easier to use data access, and data submission web pages, and to consolidating links to the remaining content on the original websites into one menu. See: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/tei. Your feedback is welcome.
“Terrestrial Ecosystem Information (TEI) Digital Data Submission Standard - Draft for Field Testing, 2010”, “Quality Assurance Guidelines for Terrain Stability Mapping” and “Terrestrial Ecosystem Information (TEI) Guidelines for Developing a Project Plan” have been Released
The Terrestrial Ecosystem Information Digital Data Submission Standard – Draft for Field Testing was released in March 2010. This Standard applies to Terrain, Terrain Stability Mapping, Bioterrain, Terrestrial Ecosystem Mapping, Predictive Ecosystem Mapping and Sensitive Ecosystems Inventory projects. This draft standard modifies the file formats for data deliverables to file geodatabase format. A geodatabase template and code validation scripts are available to support data capture, quality control and submission. The draft Standards document (with a link to the template package) is available: (PDF 1.82MB)
All deliverables must be submitted to the appropriate data repository and the data custodian must be notified following the submission (see the Terrestrial Ecosystem (TEI) Information Data Submission page for details). Note, prior to data submission, a unique business area project identification number (BAPID), must be obtained from the data custodian (if a BAPID has not already been provided). The BAPID number is required for dataset/digital file identification. Requests for BAPID numbers should only be made once the detailed project plan is in place (see the Terrestrial Ecosystem Information (TEI) Guidelines for Developing a Project Plan (PDF 232KB) for further information regarding this process).
Quality Assurance Guidelines for Terrain Stability Mapping (draft) were also released in March 2010. These are available at: Draft_TSM_QA_Guidelines(PDF 405KB).
The Terrestrial Ecosystem Information (TEI) Guidelines for Developing a Project Plan (PDF 232KB) provide an outline of the recommended process (including setting project objectives, defining methodology and deliverables) and a list of potential considerations pertaining to overall TEI project planning. (TEI projects include Terrestrial Ecosystem Mapping, Predictive Ecosystem Mapping, Sensitive Ecosystem Inventory, Bioterrain, Terrain, Landslide Inventory, Terrain Stability Mapping, Wildlife Habitat Ratings, Species Distribution Modeling, and Soils projects.)
Request for Input:
Version 1.1 of the Standard for Digital Terrain Data Capture Errata-2006-1.1 Released
Version 1.1 of the Standard for Digital Terrain Data Capture Errata-2006-1.1 was published in March 2007. This latest version of the errata has only minor edits from version 1-LBIP as outlined in Appendix 1. Errata 2006-1.1 is available at: http://ilmbwww.gov.bc.ca/risc/pubs/earthsci/terrain/Standard%20for%20Digita_Terrain_%20Data_%20Capture-Errata2006-1_1%20FINAL.pdf (PDF 243KB)
Online catalogue of Soil and Terrain Maps, Reports and Data
MoE has recently updated its Terrain Information web pages, including new pages containing a catalogue of sources of soils and terrain and related maps, reports and data, and links to terrain and soils related standards and guidelines. A ‘Resources’ page providing quick links to relevant information for terrain mappers, mapping clients/contract managers, and GIS analysts, will be added.
For Terrain information, visit: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/terrain/index.html
To access soils, terrain and related maps, reports and data, visit:
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/terrain/terrain_files/access.html
To access the Standards and Guidelines page: visit: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/terrain/terrain_files/standards.html
Landslide Classification and Inventory System
The Landslide Classification and Inventory System for British Columbia with Digital Standards, -DRAFT 1, 2007 is now available for field testing. The classification system was compiled by Terry Rollerson, for the Ministry of Environment, in order to provide a consistent classification scheme and terminology for landslide inventory mapping.
This document will be used for field testing this fiscal (07/08) and will apply to all landslide inventories completed for projects funded by government and/or destined for the Land and Resource Data Warehouse (LRDW), including FIA-funded projects.
The Ministry plans to hold a workshop in late fall 2007 to solicit feedback, recommendations and suggested improvements from the terrain/landslide mapping community, project clients and the GIS community. All parties from mappers through users, previously, currently or anticipating involvement or use of landslide inventory data are invited to review the draft standards and provide feedback to soilterrain@victoria1.gov.bc.ca.
The document is available upon request by emailing soilterrain@victoria1.gov.bc.ca.
Terrain Digital Data Standards Workshops –January 2007
MoE and APEGBC hosted two 1/2-day workshops on the current Terrain Digital Data Standard in Richmond and Nelson on January 24th and 31st, respectively. In total, 33 participants attended, representing the terrain/bioterrain mapping community, GIS contractors, geological/engineering consultants, and government (MoE, MoFR, Parks Canada).
The objective of the workshops was to inform and engage the terrain mapping community and GIS vendors with regard to the current Terrain Digital Data Standard (Errata 2006-1). The participants’ feedback will help to guide the RISC Terrain Digital Data Capture Standard proposed for the next year.
Some topics of discussion included:
1) MoE Terrain Program background
2) Terrain Information/Inventory Workshop (February 2006) priorities
3) Digital Data Capture Standards (Errata 2006-1) review
4) Data capture tips and tools for Terrain Mappers and GIS analysts
5) Terrain/soils data access on Terrain website
6) Possible future changes to the terrain/bioterrain digital data capture
standards
Future changes to the terrain/bioterrain digital data capture standards
being considered include:
• changing the data submission file format from .e00 format with
embedded attributes to .shp file format or to .gml format
• reducing the number of attributes in the database, by deleting
rarely used fields and fields recently added, or removing these from
the main database, but permitting submission in associated tables.
• permitting submission of only the data fields used.
During discussions with workshop attendees, support for the recently added data fields was varied (e.g., whether it was appropriate to collect particular attributes by component rather than by polygon), as were preferences for the .e00, .shp and/or .gml file formats for data delivery.
Participants were invited to indicate their interest in participating in further discussions regarding the evolution of the terrain digital data standards by providing their email contact information. MoE also plans to integrate the terrain, bioterrain, Terrestrial Ecosystem and Predictive Ecosystem mapping digital data standards.
Feel free to contact soilterrain@victoria1.gov.bc.ca to indicate your interest in participating in discussions regarding evolution of the terrain digital data standards. MoE will engage the terrain community in discussions as work progresses toward the planned publication of the terrain digital data standards as a RISC standard (by March 2008).
The Terrain Mapping
Information System: Moving Forward
October 2006
An
article summarizing the report: ‘The Terrain Mapping Information
System: Moving Forward’ on the Terrain Inventory/Information Workshop
held in February 2006 (see below) was published in the October 2006
issue of ASPECT (PDF
294KB). A copy of the summary report ‘The
Terrain Mapping Information System: Moving Forward’ is available
on our ftp site: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/esd/distdata/ecosystems/Terrain_Data/WorkshopReport/
The
current 2006/07 activities of the terrain information program include:
•
Maintaining
a listserv to support communication with and within the terrain community.
•
Gathering
data from various sources (e.g., regional offices, potentially from
professional mappers) to ensure this data is not lost and posting data
to data repositories.
•
Facilitating
on-going discussions with the terrain community through the Terrain
Working Group.
Terrain Inventory/Information
Workshop
February 2006
The terrain custodian hosted
a two-day terrain information workshop in
• definition of the BC terrain information system (or program)
•
identification
of trends
•
priorities
The format of the workshop was interactive with the intent
of encouraging involvement and collaboration of the terrain mapping community
in the terrain information program. The workshop was well attended with
30 participants representing terrain mapping professionals, the Ministry
of Environment, the Ministry of Forests and Range, the Integrated Land
Management Bureau, GIS contractors, forest licensees, First Nations
and other users of terrain data. A summary report by the workshop facilitator
will be available summer/fall 2006.
The terrain information
program has moved back to the Ministry of Environment
July 2005
As of July 17, 2005, the terrain information program is
managed by terrain information specialists in the Environmental Stewardship
Division of the Ministry of Environment. The Ecosystems Branch (formerly
Biodiversity Branch) of the Environmental Stewardship Division is currently
the custodian of provincial terrain mapping projects including terrain
inventory, bioterrain, terrain stability and related legacy data sets,
as well as soils mapping and data.
Modernizing the
Terrain Information Program in BC
June 2005
An
article outlining 2005/2006 initiatives that are being undertaken by
the terrain information custodian was published in the June 2005 issue
of ASPECT (PDF 294KB),
the Division of Engineers and Geoscientists in the Forest Sector’s
quarterly newsletter. The article identifies the custodian of terrain
information as the Resource Information Branch of the Land Information
BC, in the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management (MSRM). As of
June 16th, 2005 government re-organization, MSRM ceased to exist and
the majority of the responsibilities and functions of the ministry were
reassigned to the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands - Integrated Land
Management Bureau, with the resource information/inventory functions
being transferred to the Ministry of Forests and Range or the Ministry
of Environment (MoE). The ecosystem information functions, including
the terrain and soils information programs, now reside in the Environmental
Stewardship Division of MoE.
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