Islands Trust Planning

The Islands Trust retained MDI and Waterland Consulting Ltd. to map surface water systems for the entire islands trust area.  Watersheds were delineated, and combined with concentrated drainage and non-basin drainage areas, to establish an easily understood and graphical framework for how the landscape functions.  In essence, there are two formative or driving systems working on the gulf island landscapes – the longshore coastal system and the surface drainage system.  This mapping project was designed to give planners and communities on the islands at least a cursory understanding of the surface drainage system so that planning decisions could be made to respond to this formative system.  It is hoped that this information will become an integral component of the Official Community Plan review process currently underway on the islands, and that it will be used to guide implementation of the Riparian Areas Regulation on the islands.  Future work may include integration of the surface drainage mapping products with interpretation of the coastal formative system.