As resource development and human populations increase In British Columbia, pressures for all resources and services have accelerated.  Rapid growth has often overwhelmed the ability of local planners to manage land and preserve sensitive habitats.  This has resulted in loss or degradation of habitats that once supported fisheries and wildlife. Sensitive ecosystems and critical habitats are becoming increasingly threatened.  There is an urgent need to develop better methods to conserve and protect these habitats. The Sensitive Habitat Inventory and Mapping (SHIM) Atlas represents a response to this need. The SHIM Atlas is a land-planning, computer-generated interactive GIS tool that identifies sensitive aquatic and terrestrial habitats.  The Atlas is intended to provide community, stewardship groups, individuals, regional districts and municipalities with an effective low cost delivery system for information on these local habitats and associated land uses.

The awareness and commitment to local resources is an important process created through cooperation of local communities, First Nations, municipalities, planners, and managers. SHIM mapping and data systems developed to date reflect the use and interests of many of these agencies and community groups.

The primary functions of the SHIM Atlas are:

• Identify sensitive habitats and resources within local communities
• Integrate property boundaries, land parcels, and road networks with locations of sensitive resources to facilitate official community plans and development permit applications;
• Work within an interactive Geographical Information System (GIS) to provide useful map products for analysis and effective communication.
• Facilitate updating and exchange of information;
• Establish partnerships with provincial and municipal governments, stakeholders, and the public to protect and manage fish habitat.

By combining resource information from a variety of sources it is hoped that the SHIM Atlas will provide a strong foundation for improving integrated resource management and planning in urban and rural areas.

The SHIM Atlas consists of an electronic map of British Columbia, served up on the Internet via Autodesk MapGuide.  A computer server for the SHIM Atlas is maintained at the offices of the British Columbia Conservation Foundation (BCCF) and is administrated by a dedicated web master. The SHIM Atlas serves up multiple map layers existing in digital format for British Columbia. These map layers can be viewed over the Internet and can, in many cases, be queried for linked data reports.  BC map layers available include:

• Watershed Boundaries (at multiple map scales)

• Provincial Park Boundaries

• Regional District Boundaries

• Georgia Basin Boundary

• Hydrology (at 1:50,000 and 1:20,000 scale)

• TRIM features (1:20,000)

• Local cadastral features (various municipalities)

• Map grids (multiple scales)

• FISS and fish presence (1:50,000)

• SHIM features (1:5000)

• BC Communities

• Watershed classifications

• Salmon Stock Status

• Orthophotographs (in various resolutions for Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland)

The SHIM Atlas also allows users (with appropriate password access) to digitize new map layers and enter novel information on local resources directly into the Atlas over the Internet.  This user provided mapping information is intended to augment and potentially enhance local land use planning maps and/or specific site or detailed planning surveys.

The mapping functions of the SHIM Atlas allows Internet users to overlay property boundaries, land parcels, road networks and other land use information with the locations of sensitive resources. The Atlas therefore provides a powerful interactive platform for the viewing, querying and creation of reliable, high quality, current and spatially accurate information about local freshwater habitats and watercourses (see example image below). 

Information existing within the SHIM Atlas can be used to:

• Identify sensitive habitats for fish and wildlife along watercourses;

• Assist in determining setbacks and fish/wildlife-sensitive zones;

• Help guide management decisions and priorities with respect to habitat restoration and enhancement projects;

• Assist in the design of stormwater/runoff management plans;

• Monitor for changes in habitat resulting from known disturbance;

• Provide a means of highlighting areas that may have problems with channel stability or water quality, and require more detailed study;

• Identify and map point and non-point sources of pollution;

• Provide current information, not previously available to urban planners, to allow more informed planning decisions and provide inventory information for Official Community Plans;

• Provide baseline mapping data for future monitoring activities;

• Map and identify the extent of riparian vegetation available and used by wildlife and fisheries resources;

• Provide preliminary data for analyses which can be used to indicate potential trends in resources that may require further study;

• Integrate new map information with existing TRIM and municipal planning maps;

• Contribute information towards an inventory of fish distribution and limiting factors to watershed based fish production;

• Assist in understanding urban water runoff patterns and help determine areas of impervious surfaces in urban watersheds.

Not available at this time.

The SHIM Atlas has been designed to provide users with easy and intuitive access a range of map coverages.  The interface for the Atlas consists of three main frames:

• Toolbar Frame - contains several tools used to interact with the map.
• Map Frame - contains the interactive map.
• Layer Frame - contains the interface for adding/removing layers from the map.

The SHIM Atlas allows the user to display various provincial agency basemap layers, including the 1:20,000 Terrain Resource Inventory and Mapping (TRIM) features for BC.

The SHIM Atlas also allows users to query the province’s Fisheries Information Summary System (FISS) and extract data reports tied to streams catalogued within BC’s 1:50,000 Watershed Atlas.

Most critically the SHIM Atlas allows the user to view and query detailed mapping and inventory of streams and wetlands undertaken by municipalities and community organizations under the auspices of the SHIM mapping program.

SHIM data collectors that have been given a secure password for access to the SHIM Atlas site are given the ability to edit map features or enter new mapping information into the Atlas. The Atlas provides a range of specialized mapping and data entry tools for digitizing map points, lines and polygons directly over the Internet and inputting new data or imagery.

Coming Soon

The SHIM Atlas currently maintains detailed mapping information for over 200 streams in the Lower  Mainland (see table below); information that has been collected by municipalities, environmental organizations and community volunteers using SHIM’s standardized GPS mapping protocols.