Echoes of Past Landscapes: contaminated sites in Vancouver, British Columbia

Since its inception in the 1960's, GIScience has become a prime tool for environmental analysis.  It is widely used in examining land use changes in forestry, natural resource management, ecology, conservation biology, and many other areas of environmental interest.   In response to this, a great deal of research has been conducted on improving  levels of error and accuracy (e.g. including Joy and Klinkenberg, 1996;  Joy and Klinkenberg 1995; Cumming et al. 1995; Joy, Klinkenberg and Cumming 1994; Klinkenberg and Joy 1994; Klinkenberg and Xiao, 1990), exploring its use in geomorphology (e.g. Schiefer, Slaymaker and Klinkenberg 2001; Xiao and Klinkenberg, 1993), and examining the value of visualization (e.g., Antle and Klinkenberg, 1999).  (see publications page)

However, GIScience is also a prime tool for use in public health issues, epidemiology and social and environmental justice, and interest in this area of research is growing.  This has led us to explore the growing value of GIS in this field, where visualization of data is a strength that has led to some interesting results.

In recent years, for example, researchers have been investigating the environmental and health effects of past land use in our urban centres (i.e. brownfields). In Toronto, such investigations in school yards revealed that many were contaminated by lead, a result of the previous use of these sites for businesses such as gas stations.  Without adequate, modern clean up measures, the residual effects of such past land uses may have serious implications for public health.

In 1999, following this lead, we initiated a project exploring the potential for such contamination in Vancouver.  We examined the coincidence of past, potentially contaminating, land uses with existing modern day schools sites.  This stage of the research was carried out in a directed studies course (Geog. 448). Additional work on the project was carried out in 2000.

Read about our work in a student project  (Geography 448--1999)    (Klinkenberg, Aparicio, Mak, Truk, Lynn, Fadnes, Louie, Yam).

Review our Contaminated Sites Poster (2000) (Klinkenberg and Denoth).  (Note--this is a very large PDF file).
 

REFERENCES

Braul, Waldemar, James Russell and William J. Andrews.  1989.  Toxic Real Estate in British Columbia:  Identification of Issues.  West Coast Environmental Law Association, Vancouver.

Braul, Waldemar. 1990.  Toxic Real Estate in British Columbia:  Liability.  West Coast Environmental Law Association, Vancouver.