Brief description of the organization
Town of The Blue Mountains is a small town located on the shore of Georgian Bay and with significant land area within the Niagara Escarpment. The Town includes urban areas such as Thornbury, Clarksburg, Craigleith, Blue Mountain Village and many other small communities. The Blue Mountains is home to over 9,400 permanent residents and an additional 6,000+ seasonal and part-time residents. As an internationally recognized tourism destination, the community welcomes over 2.5 million visitors annually. The economy centers largely around tourism and agriculture, with ski hills, beaches, parks and trails, and is one of Ontario’s largest apple growing regions. The Blue Mountains Future Story (www.tbmfuturestory.ca) serves as the Town’s community sustainability plan, guiding transformative change to reduce the Town’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, adapt to climate change, support biodiversity, adopt a more circular economy, embrace diversity, equity and inclusion, and much more.
Problem area
As with most communities, the Town has a wealth of natural features including trees and forests, wetlands, watercourses and waterbodies, and more. As a rapidly growing coastal community on the Niagara Escarpment, the Town of The Blue Mountains must balance development impacts and expanding needs for service delivery with the need to protect the natural environment. Natural features provide benefits to the community including water filtration and flood risk mitigation, shade & cooling, natural beauty and appreciation, local economic benefits from tourism, and much more. The Town recently completed a Natural Assets Inventory and Natural Heritage Study to begin to identify, assess and value these assets which will inform future policy and program development guide the Town in protecting and enhancing its natural assets. The Natural Assets Inventory is a first step, and more work is needed to better understand near-term measures or ‘quick wins’ that will help the Town demonstrate the usefulness and applicability of the Natural Assets Inventory.
Main objectives
- Research best practices for natural assets management and analyze the Town’s Natural Assets Inventory to identify the most likely areas for near- and medium-term interventions to enhance the size, connectivity and/or quality of Town-owned natural assets.
- Explore and quantify the anticipated benefits of the identified interventions for the Town and for the natural environment.
Scope of work
- Receive and review GIS-based natural assets inventory data from the Town
- Conduct a literature review and/or look for examples of municipal natural assets management practices and projects showing improved environmental outcomes, preferably where public engagement has taken place
- Work with the Town to develop a shortlist of potential projects/interventions the Town could explore to enhance natural assets on Town-owned lands
- Outline public engagement needs for any of these potential projects, perhaps reaching out to municipalities that have done this work to learn about their experiences with public engagement
- Design one or more proposed natural asset improvement projects at specific locations from the shortlist, depending on the project team’s priorities/interests and potential value to the Town.
- Review the proposed design(s) with the Town and narrow in on one or two key interventions for the Town to consider exploring in the future
- Identify relevant metrics to help the Town understand the potential benefits of the chosen solution(s), and recommend a monitoring plan to assess project metrics after it is implemented in the future.
- Prepare a final report summarizing the above with recommended next steps.
Deliverables
Deliverables, activities, validation, etc. needed for this project will depend on the specific action pursued by the student group. These could include, but are not limited to:
- GIS and geomatics work to help identify ideal sites for natural assets improvement projects
- Designs and drawings featuring land use change to enhance natural assets, green infrastructure, etc.
- Identified metrics of success and monitoring plan
- Summary of work done and recommended next steps
Skills and training required
- GIS/Geomatics to help identify a project site
- Research and analytical skills
- Communication skills if attempting to learn from other municipalities
- Project coordination
- Knowledge of natural assets including forests, wetlands, aquatic/shoreline environments, etc. Community planning and/or knowledge of asset management practices would also be helpful.
Required resources
- University of Waterloo to advise of any resources that may assist the student group with this project
- The Town’s Natural Assets Inventory and Asset Management Plan
- Town mapping (GIS) resources including Town-owned land and infrastructure
NDA or a commercialization agreement for this project?
Yes