For all those who love data, (and really, who doesn’t?) the BC government has consolidated and released hundreds of datasets and mapping tools in the DataBC Catalogue at www.data.gov.bc.ca.
In addition to data on natural resources, the website also includes information on education, transportation and other government departments. For the natural resources data, there are more than 750 tools to chose from, covering topics such as agriculture, parks, wildfires, mineral rights, wildlife species and habitat.
Among the topics that caught my eye were:
- Species Inventory Database which links to searchable datasets from research projects across the province;
- ALC Agricultural Land Reserve Lines which is always useful information when planning land conservation projects; and
- Invasive Alien Plant Program, a mapping application showing known locations for invasive plant species.
There are hundreds of other resources, this is definitely a wealth of information that is worth exploring.