Foothills Research Institute

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Regional Online Landscape Decision Support System Project

December 16, 2009

The Foothills Research Institute (FRI) together with GeoConnections and Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, Jasper National Park, the Town of Hinton and Hinton Wood Products (A division of West Fraser Mills Ltd.) are creating an online system that will aid in landuse decision making. The objectives of the FRI regional online landscape decision support system project are the following:

  • Promote the “beyond boundary” exchange of data and information between project partners and organizations within the Foothills Research Institute (FRI) region.
  • Implement the standardized access and disturbance information products.
  • Provide a unique regional system that will help promote the collaboration of regional partners such as government, industry, and municipalities in landscape level resource development plans.
  • Serve as a pilot project system based on collaborative approach that could be applied to other areas in Alberta or in other provinces.
  • Help raise the profile of ILM and build cross-sectoral relationships e.g., Government and industry.
  • Participate in the Canadian Integrated Land Management (ILM network).

Preliminary Screen Shots:
If you are unable to view the images below please visit our photo gallery.

The project will run until April 2010 and though in the early phases of system development, is based on an open source platform. We will still be using ESRI software as our base GIS software at the Foothills Research Institute, but by utilizing an open source solution for the decision support system, this will allow us many benefits. Some of these benefits include but are not limited to: an adaptable and flexible framework, the ability to meet FRI and partner business needs over time, the utilization of a strong world-wide community of open source developers and the opportunity to put our maintenance dollars towards tangible tasks such as capacity building and development time.

For additional information on the project, please contact Debbie Mucha, GIS Coordinator at the FRI at 780-865-8290.

Author: Foothills Research Institute: Debbie Mucha, GIS Coordinator
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