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Track: Environmental Management
Andrew Sherin
Geological Survey of Canada
PO Box 1006
Dartmouth
Nova Scotia, B2Y 4A2
CANADA
Telephone: 902-426-7582
Fax: 902-426-4104
E-mail: sherin@agc.bio.ns.ca
Integrating Geoscience Data for Environmental Planning in Severn Sound
Defining Issue: The Geological Survey of Canada has been collaborating with the Severn Sound Remedial Action Program and McQuest Marine Sciences to collect, interpret, and integrate geoscience data to support environmental planning and remedial action for the Severn Sound watershed. Severn Sound is a shallow enclosed embayment of Georgian Bay, Lake Huron. It has significant tourist facilities and cottage development on its shores, includes parts of the Georgian Bay Islands National Park, receives water from the Trent-Severn Canal system, and has significant recreational boating and commercial vessel traffic. The watershed to the south is a significant agricultural area. Severn Sound is located at the contact between the metamorphic rocks of the Canadian Shield to the north and flat-lying sedimentary rocks to the south. The Geological Survey of Canada has conducted the McQuest Marine Sciences two geophysical and geological surveys of Severn Sound, which collected high-resolution seismic and sidescan
sonar data and bottom samples and conducted ROV reconnaissance at selected sites. The integration of these and other geoscience data sets was needed to support environmental planning and remedial action by the Severn Sound Remedial Action Program. GIS Solution: The Geological Survey of Canada integrated geological, topographic, and hydrographic data to provide a geological framework for environmental planning and remedial action to the Severn Sound Remedial Action Program. Methodology: Data came from several digital sources including AutoCAD files of lake-bottom geology and anthropogenic features, ASCII files of interpreted seismic horizons, CARIS files of bathymetric data, shapefiles of terrestrial surficial geology, and ArcInfo coverages of topographic data. Procedures were developed to build cross sections of the geology of Severn Sound from interpreted seismic profiles and to build combined digital data elevation models from the terrestrial and lacustrine topographic data. Software: The initial
data compilation was conducted using ArcInfo Version 7.0.4. AML routines were developed in conjunction with UNIX utilities to build the geological cross sections using dynamic segmentation. Grids were used for DEM development and display. The compilation was then ported to ArcView Version 2.1 for delivery to the Severn Sound Remedial Action Program.
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