Exploring Potential Ski Resort Locations in British Columbia
Introduction
Winter sports such as skiing and snowboarding are becoming more popular in the
province of British Columbia and the industry is growing as a result. There are a lot of
factors to consider during the planning process of finding suitable areas for the
development of a new ski resort. Some of the criteria that was provided by the client
included topography, climate, precipitation, land ownership and tenure, accessibility
by different modes of transport, environmental considerations, surrounding
communities, and economy.
The goal of this project was to determine ski resort development suitability based on
the following criteria: elevation, slope, aspect, snow depth, provincial and national
parks, protected areas, alpine ski resorts, land ownership and tenure, and road access.

By: Natasha Seguin
IEP 271: GIS Applications II
Integrated Environmental Planning
School of Environment and Geomatics

Results and Discussion
The amount of area that is suitable for the development of a new ski resort
decreases as more factors are considered. The final map shows that potential ski
resort locations based on elevation, slope, aspect, snow depth, provincial and
national parks, protected areas, alpine ski resorts, land ownership and tenure,
and road access are surrounding Revelstoke, Golden, and Valemount.
Of all the criteria that was analyzed in this project, elevation below 1300 meters,
slopes below 8% and above 80%, and unavailable areas have the greatest
influence on the amount of suitable areas that are available, followed by road
access.

Methodology
Three models for elevation, slope, and aspect were created using a 20-meter resolution Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and the Fuzzy Membership tool. The Fuzzy
Membership tool reclassified and set the values of each layer between 0 and 1 in order to combine them using the Weighted Sum tool. Data ranging from 1981 to present
regarding average snow depth in winter (Dec-Feb) and spring (Mar-May) was retrieved from a combination of 53 climate and snow stations. The Inverse Distance Weighting
(IDW) interpolation tool was used to create a raster from the station points. The weighted sum tool was then used to visualize ski suitability based on elevation, slope,
aspect, and snow depth.
A raster was created from polygon feature classes to represent areas that are unavailable such as provincial and national parks, protected areas, alpine ski resorts, and land
subject to ownership and tenure. The Raster Calculator tool was then used to multiply ski suitability by the latter in addition to elevation below 1300 meters and slopes below
8% and above 80% to show ski resort development suitability. The Euclidean Distance and inverse Fuzzy Membership tools were used to narrow down ski resort
development suitability by calculating proximity to highways and forest service roads (FSR).

Limitations and Assumptions
• Time constraints and time-consuming processes
• Variation in type of data and range of years
available from climate and snow stations
• Mistakes in the data from stations
• Inadequate number of stations to use interpolation
tool for variable topography

Data Sources
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Canadian Climate Normals
River Forecast Centre
Geospatial Data Extraction
BC Data Catalogue

Maps Produced on March 14, 2019