[No abstract available] / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

In the search for energy many proposals have been made to harness the rivers of British Columbia, but the one for the Moran canyon on the Fraser River has the widest implications. A dam on this site, 800 feet high and 2400 feet wide, could produce initially 4 million horsepower of electricity at low cost. In addition it would hold the key to flood control on the Fraser River and to expansion of navigation, industrial location and agriculture. It would be located on part of the river believed by many to have considerable potential for future salmon runs. While each of these aspects of the dam is important when considered by its proponents, together they indicate a unique possibility of widening the economic base of the province. One aspect, the effect of the dam on agriculture, is the subject of this study. Moran Dam, it is believed, will affect agriculture in three major ways: (1) It will flood the Fraser Valley for a distance of 172 miles north of Moran to a maximum elevation of 1540 feet; (2) it will provide low cost hydro-electric power for use in pumping irrigation water and for rural electrification; (3) it will provide low cost energy which may act as a factor in the location of electrically-oriented industries, and in turn through an increased work force create larger markets for agricultural products. It is these influences on agriculture related to the land and people of British Columbia that concerns this thesis. To collect the necessary data four week-long trips were made to the agricultural areas of the Fraser Basin in the fall of 1957. Land-use was mapped and location of farms, ranches and significant landforms upon which agriculture could be undertaken were mapped. Later airphotos and maps were studied. The reasons for proposing the Moran Dam along with a comparison between this dam and others within the province were reviewed. Next followed a description of the landforms, climate, soils, vegetation and hydrology, the components of the Physical Geography. A consideration of the present value, location and nature of agricultural activity and the extent to which foodstuffs have been imported into the province was made. Another aspect studied was the human geography. As the Fraser River Basin was found too large to study as a whole a sub-regional breakdown was made within which the various aspects of the problem were discussed. The sub-regions were Lytton to Moran, Moran to Williams Lake River, Williams Lake River to Quesnel and the adjacent areas of the Thompson Valley, Chilcotin and Cariboo plateau. Flooding was found to be restricted because of the physical nature of the valley with its steep slopes rising from the river to a more or less continuous series of benches 100 to 800 feet above its present bed. Thus only about 3000 acres of arable land, now chiefly utilized for winter grazing would be flooded, while about 45,000 acres could be intensively cultivated with irrigation water pumped from the reservoir. If the adjacent regions were included, where flooding is not a factor, pumping plants utilizing low cost electrical energy could make available an additional 20,000 acres. Since British Columbia at present imports large quantities of foodstuffs, additional population expected to work in electrically-oriented industries would necessitate importation of even larger quantities of foodstuffs unless some of the 65,000 acres were developed. Many of these are in areas with a relatively long growing season, large accumulated temperatures and low precipitation. Soils are fertile and the prospects for the intensive cultivation of vegetables, fruits and forage crops, plus the establishment of "feed lot" type cattle operations, in place of extensive grazing of cattle, could be expected. The costs of expanding agriculture in this region, however, would have to be competitive with other areas where irrigation agriculture is undertaken. This expansion of agriculture, desirable to meet the growing deficit in foodstuffs within British Columbia, would be dependent on the advent of large scale pumping irrigation works contingent on the construction of Moran Dam. No other proposal has been made of comparable import to the diversification of the economic base of the province. The impact of the proposal on agriculture alone is impressive. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

A study was made of rocks outcropping along a road section in the vicinity of Hell's Gate, some 12 miles south of Boston Bar, British Columbia. Biotite schists belonging to the Hozameen group (Carboniferous or Permian in age), were the oldest rocks found. The Custer granodiorite, a heterogeneous igneous body having the average composition of a hornblende granodiorite, intrudes the biotite schists. The age of the Caster granodiorite is believed to be Upper Jurassic. Large numbers of pegmatite and aplite dykes intrude the Custer granodiorite. Two types of pegmatites, magmatic and metasomatic were distinguished. The Hell's date granodiorite, a uniform igneous body of trondjhemitic composition, intrudes the Custer granodiorite and also post dates the pegmatite and aplite dykes. The age of the Hell's Qate granodiorite is believed to be Upper Jurassic or possibly Lower Cretaceous. Sight plagioclase porphyry dykes, classified into one of three groups, (staple, multiple, and protoclastic types) were found. The plagioclase porphyry dykes are believed to be genetically related to the Hell's Gate granodiorite. Six dykes having an andesitic composition were found; the dykes have been classified into light colored and dark colored andesites. The rocks along the road section have been intensively fractured. Faulting has taken place close to the southern contact between the two granodiorites. The narrow N-S trending outcrop of Custer granodiorite in the area could possibly have been produced by faulting, and its shape suggests a horst structure, A study, using a method suggested by Gorai, was made of the plagioclase twins occurring in the Hell's Gate rocks. The conclusions drawn from this work largely confirms the conclusions drawn from the field evidence. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

The flood plain of the Fraser River in the Lower Fraser Valley is rapidly becoming urbanized, this being most evident in the municipality of Richmond located on Lulu Island. A problem arises due to the fact that the Fraser River is subject to frequent floods of varying magnitudes. To prevent flood damages a system of dykes has been constructed around Lulu Island. Evidence indicates, however, that even with the dykes there still exists a substantial residual flood hazard. A major flood in Richmond would constitute a financial disaster. Consequently, if development is to occur on the flood plain, additional adjustments to the flood hazard are necessary. The planning process in Richmond has apparently failed to recognize this necessity. To understand the observed breakdown in the planning process the literature suggests that the problem may be fruitfully studied by examining the decision-making process with respect to perception of the flood hazard and alternative adjustments to the hazard. The hypothesis proposed is that the planning officials are aware of the alternate adjustments but policies to implement these measures are not undertaken because of lack of support from the general public who do not perceive the flood problem or ways to cope with it. The methodology used to study the problem involves three steps. The first is the definition and description of flood plain management policy at all government levels operating in British Columbia. The second step is to identify the public decision-making process with respect to flood plain management. Interviews with key officials in this process are reported upon according to their perceptions of the flood hazard and adjustments to the flood hazard. The third step is to sample perceptions of flood plain land-users by means of a questionnaire to determine their perceptions of the hazard and adjustments. The study shows that the officials are aware of the hazard but do not adequately perceive non-structural adjustments. The general public is poorly informed and thus shows little concern about the subject. The results indicate that perception of the hazard is a major factor in the adjustment adoption process. It appears that a change in decision-makers' perceptions will be necessary to bring about a change in the planning practise with respect to flood plain management. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Unit hydrographs are derived for four watersheds in the Lower Fraser Valley using a computerized least squares technique. These unit hydrographs are then related to specific basin characteristics so that synthetic unit hydrographs can be constructed for the ungauged basins in the area. After attempting several techniques to relate the unit hydrographs to basin characteristics both the time-to-peak and the peak flow were related to the basin slope, shape, channel length and degree of urbanization. To more fully define the synthetic unit hydrograph shape, the unit hydrograph widths at 50 per cent and 75 per cent of the peak flow were related to the peak flow. In this way five points can be used to establish the unit hydrograph shape (one for the peak and four for the widths). Other results included estimates of average infiltration rates for each basin calculated from rainfall and runoff data. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Civil Engineering, Department of / Graduate

The Fraser river is an essential, multi-purpose resource involving the interests of every community in the lower mainland of British Columbia. Inevitably there is a continuing public dialogue about the use of the river and consequently about the water quality standards, management strategies and the technologies which will sustain the desired uses. This public discussion was recently focused upon the regional sewage treatment facilities under construction at Annacis Island in the lower main arm of the river. Planners need to refine their understanding of such public dialogue to help them in analysing environmental management policies, communicating with clients and educating communities about the best way to achieve their environmental goals. The study was exploratory and experimental. The primary aim was to identify and advance our understanding of the concepts and conceptualising processes which caused individuals, concerned about water quality standards in the lower Fraser river, to prefer different management strategies for the Annacis Island plant. The central hypothesis was that an individual's environmental management preferences could be more usefully explained and more accurately predicted in relation to his conceptualising preferences than in relation to aspects of his background experience such as occupation and education. The study was completed in four stages: 1. The repertory grid technique, developed by the psychologist George Kelly, as a means of investigating the ways in which an individual rationalises about his environment, was adapted to the Fraser river situation. Later it was applied as a major investigative technique within the questionnaire framework. 2. The literature about the Annacis Island case was reviewed and summarised to provide the empirical framework for the study. 3. A questionnaire was designed and administered, in person, to thirty individuals. Ten individuals were chosen to represent each of three public interest groups who had been vocal in the discussion about the Annacis Island plant. The groups involved were the fishing industry, environmental organisations and water quality managers. Information was solicited on three topics: a. The respondent's background experience, especially his use for the river, occupation and education. b. His management preferences for the regional sewage system, especially for the Annacis Island plant. c. His conceptualising preferences, especially the way in which he distinguished between attributes of the water environment. 4. The information created by the questionnaire was categorised and subjected to statistical analysis. The repertory grid technique was successful in eliciting information about the way in which people construe the river environment. Respondents demonstrated a universal preference for thinking about things found in the Fraser river in terms of four general distinctions: whether they were living or inert, man made or natural, did or did not harm the life in the river and either affected or were affected by the other things they contacted in the river. The respondents were most clearly differentiated by more specialised ways of thinking about the river environment. For example, they were distinguished by their preference for thinking in terms of ecological systems, management systems and abstract technicalities. Although these factors were not satisfactorily linked with management preferences they should be reconsidered in future studies. Conceptual complexity was the only factor decisively linked with management preferences. Those respondents who preferred to use a variety of concepts and information simultaneously were shown to have a greater preference for using both conservationist and innovative strategies in the management of the regional sewage facilities. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

This study investigates the relation between channel instability and sediment transport along an 80 km reach of lower Fraser River, British Columbia. The major processes governing instability, bank erosion and sedimentation were investigated by analyzing the patterns of morphologic change along the river over the last century. Morphologic changes were documented using historical maps and air photographs. The method of approach can be considered a "macroscopic" one since the investigation focused primarily on the gross patterns of change that occurred over periods of years to decades. It was found that this interval is the most appropriate time scale for investigating channel instability and sedimentation processes on a large stream such as the Fraser River. This is because the major features governing instability and sedimentation also develop over comparatively long time periods. Several examples are presented to illustrate how sequences of major channel instability have propagated along the river over periods of 10 to 30 years. These disturbances often initiated new patterns of sedimentation, local erosion and subsequent channel instability further downstream. The most common diagnostic feature associated with these travelling disturbances are relatively large, low amplitude, linguoidal-shaped "gravel sheets" that attach to more stable lateral bars and islands. These bars may cause strong flow impingement against previously stable banks and islands. As a result, rapid scour and erosion may be initiated even during periods of low discharge. Four different approaches were used to estimate the long term gravel transport rate along the river. These methods included direct measurements using trap samplers (carried out by Water Survey of Canada over a period of 12 years), a sediment budget calculation which related changes in transport through a reach to changes in the volume of sediment stored in the channel determined by surveys, a morphologic approach which used a simple model of sediment transfers through a reach, and finally theoretical bed load formulae. It was found that the sediment budget and the morphological model provided the most reliable and most generally applicable results. This was because the methods rely on observations of sediment movement over periods of years or decades. It was found that on Fraser River, the time scales of the major processes governing gravel bed load transport were also measured in years or decades. As a result, short term measurements such as from bed load trap samplers show only a poor correlation between transport rate and flow variables. Therefore, to estimate long term transport rates with these data, a very large number of observations is required to integrate the transport rates over time. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

Temporal and spatial variations of the Fraser River plume, in the central Strait of Georgia (British Columbia, Canada), are monitored by continuous salinity sampling of the engine cooling water on two B.C. ferries. Travelling along two different routes between Vancouver Island and the mainland the ferries provide eight crossings per day both north and south of the river outflow. From each crossing, characteristic measures of the plume are extracted, such as the average salinity and the maximum salinity gradient. These parameters are then formulated as time series and used to compute cross-correlations and cross-spectra with the probable driving forces of wind and river discharge. The effect of the tides is examined using harmonic analysis. Periods of high river discharge lead to decreases in the average salinity for each section, and peaks in the magnitude of the maximum salinity gradient. The correlation of the plume characteristics (average salinity, maximum salinity gradient) on the southern section with the along-strait component of the wind is consistent with advection by the wind. Weak correlation is found between the plume characteristics on the northern section and the wind. Linear combination of the wind and the discharge variations reproduce the general trend of the average salinities but cannot explain the level of variability. A shift to a nonlinear combination of the wind and discharge improves this comparison. The phases of parameter fluctuations at tidal frequencies, on the southern section, agree with the expected effects of tidal currents and the modulation of the river discharge. The agreement is not as apparent for the northern section. The level of the discharge is seen to affect the tidal amplitudes of the salinity fluctuations on the southern section. A numerical model, previously developed to examine the effect of tidal forcing on the plume, is modified to input the hourly wind and daily discharge data record. Equivalent average salinities along the ferry section are outputed and compared to the observed ferry data. Good agreement is reached after manipulating the entrainment velocity and the momentum transfer from the wind to the plume. The tides are seen to add a tidal modulation to the general salinity pattern resulting from the combined effect of the wind and the discharge. Horizontal distributions from the model and from CTD cruise results agree fairly well with each another. / Science, Faculty of / Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of / Graduate

This thesis examines four communities in the Lower Fraser Basin (Burnaby, Richmond, Langley and Abbotsford), as a case study for examining the "ecology of environmentalism". I have compared two "low environmentalism" communities (Richmond and Abbotsford), and two which have a significantly larger field of environmental groups (Burnaby and Langley). The research included 43 interviews (37 with leaders of grassroots environmental groups and a mailout questionnaire which was sent to one leader of each of the 71 groups in the four municipalities (64% response rate). Together this research amounts to 82% coverage of all the environmental groups in the four municipalities. Using this data, I argue that the differences between the municipal areas are not very well explained either in terms of the themes in Resource Mobilisation Theory, in either of the major theories of social movements and the State, or in terms of standard demographic variables associated with environmentalism (community size, gender, income, education, ethnicity, or occupation). I have therefore used the themes of "civil society" and "public spheres" (Allario 1995; Calhoun 1996; Cohen and Arato; Fraser 1992; Habermas 1989; Walzer 1991) to compare the four municipalities. I suggest that the more holistic approach especially as proposed by Jean Cohen and Andrew Arato (1992), provides a better way of analyzing both the actions and the ecology of environmental groups in the Lower Fraser Basin.

This study of precipitation is based on data in the 1955 Climate of British Columbia concerning the network of 106 stations which have been operated in the Fraser River Basin, Emphasis is on the description of precipitation characteristics, with cartographic representation of the data forming the basis of the explanations and discussion in the The first portion of the study concerns the concentration of annual and seasonal precipitation throughout the Basin, followed by a similar examination of mean annual and seasonal snowfall with observations concerning the proportion of annual snowfall in each season and the proportion of seasonal precipitation which occurs as snow. A parallel discussion of proportions for total precipitation, with emphasis on seasons and months of maximum and minimum, is concluded by an analysis of precipitation regimes in various parts of the Basin. The effect of the gaps in the Coast Mountains resulting in continental or coastal characteristics of precipitation, dependent on station location, is noted repeatedly throughout the thesis. Considerations of variability as well as the value and methods of checking homogeneity of station records are included with observations concerning years in which heavy or light precipitation was general in large parts of the Basin. An examination of all topics as they affect the thirteen sub-basins of the Fraser concludes the study. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate