Abstract

Building a Spatial Representation of Streams with Water Allocation Restrictions
Track: Water Resources
Authors: Christopher Ens

With many stakeholders seeking access to a limited resource, being able to visualize what streams are already fully licensed is an important tool for managing water resources in British Columbia. Streams become restricted to further licensing upstream from a restriction point in order to ensure previously licensed water rights are not infringed on and to maintain enough water to protect natural values. With restrictions only represented as points, it can be difficult to determine the status of streams far upstream from a restriction point, resulting in some errors in water allocation and unhappy clients who have their applications denied, losing their non-refundable application fee.

This project used python scripting to navigate multiple data issues and automate the process of identifying what stream segments were upstream from water restriction points and produce a spatial layer of restricted streams that water managers can view through the BC government Internet Mapping Framework.