Local participation in environmental decision making processes is a recognized need if the goals of sustainable development are to be met. Spatial information is an important part of environmental decision making, but so far, technical barriers have prevented effective public participation in spatial data management and analysis. These barriers need to be overcome if participants are to take part in a decision making process in a manner that is both fair and competent. The study was undertaken to quantify land cover change in a particular region and, through this exercise, to determine what the practical barriers to public participation in decision making might be. The work was conducted in the Windermere Valley, British Columbia. Community questions about local environmental change were determined from a local newspaper and discussions with Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (ENGO's). Using satellite imagery and other geospatial data, community questions about local environmental change were answered through the detection of land cover change for the period 1974--1991. The processes of acquiring the data and completing the analysis were evaluated with the criteria of fairness and competence. The products of the change detection analysis were evaluated based on how well they answered community questions. Suggestions are presented on what tools and resources ENGO's would require to complete a similar study to answer questions about the environment.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.30231 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Yetman, Gregory George. |
| Contributors | Meredith, Thomas (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of Geography.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001764985, proquestno: MQ64207, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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