As the need to understand climate induced changes increases, so too does the need to
understand the long-term spatial-temporal characteristics of snow cover and snow water
equivalence (SWE). Snow cover and SWE are useful indicators of climate change. In
this research, we combine methods from spatial statistics, geographic information
systems (GIS), time-series analysis, ecosystems classification, cluster analysis, and
remote sensing, to provide a unique perspective on the spatial-temporal interactions of
SWE. We show that within the Canadian Prairies, extreme SWE are becoming more
spatially constrained, and may cause some regions to be more prone to flooding. As well,
we find that the temporal characteristics of SWE are not captured by current ecological
management units, highlighting the need for Canadian ecological management units that
consider winter conditions. We then address this need by developing methods designed
to generate geographically distinct SWE regimes. These regimes are used to partition the
landscape into winter-based management units, and compared with conventional summer
based units. We find that regional variations in the ability of current ecological units to capture SWE characteristics exist, and suggest that SWE regimes generated as a result of
this analysis should be used as guidelines for developing winter-based management units
in conjunction with current ecological stratifications.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/1374 |
| Date | 28 April 2009 |
| Creators | Farmer, Carson John Quentry |
| Contributors | Nelson, Trisalyn Anna-Lisa |
| Source Sets | University of Victoria |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | Available to the World Wide Web |
Page generated in 0.0021 seconds