Digital Compilation of Local Scale Biophysical Mapping for Integrated Resource Management, Watson Lake Area (NTS 105A/2), Yukon
YGS Open File 2005-6(D)

by

P. S. Lipovsky (1) and K. McKenna (2)

(1) Yukon Geological Survey
Department of Energy, Mines and Resources
Government of Yukon

(2) Cryogeographic Consulting, Whitehorse, Yukon

Crown Copyright, 2005

(Note: this file is best viewed in Notepad if "word wrap" is checked under the format menu.)


Acknowledgements
----------------

Geological and biophysical analysis: P. S. Lipovsky, K. McKenna and C. A. Huscroft

Digital cartography and GIS: P. S. Lipovsky and K. McKenna

This work was funded by the Knowledge and Innovation Fund of the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, the Yukon Geological Survey and Forest Management Branches (Yukon Department of Energy, Mines and Resources), and Yukon Fish and Wildlife Branch and Parks Branch (Yukon Department of Environment).  

The project would not have been possible without the terrain mapping standards and applications established by Howes and Kenk (1997) and the Government of British Columbia (Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management).  Likewise, the project could not have been undertaken without significant efforts and ecosystem classification groundwork laid by the Government of British Columbia Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks and Ministry of Forests; John Grods of Makonis Consulting Ltd. (Kelowna, BC); Shawn Francis of former Applied Ecosystem Management Ltd. (Whitehorse); and members of the Yukon Biophysical Mapping Working Group.  

The authors are also extremely grateful to Crystal Huscroft, Val Loewen, Franklin the dog, Rhonda Rosie, John Meikle, Jan Adamczewski, Jeffrey Bond, Kirk Price, Tom Cove and Riley Brodhagen for their contributions and assistance.  Andrew Neale Digital Mapping Inc. (Victoria, BC) performed high resolution aerial photograph scanning, georeferencing, and digital stereo modelling.  Dave Laxton, Rob Legare, Joel Campbell and Frank Molund also provided invaluable digital mapping technical assistance.


CD Content
----------
The CD-ROM contains data in five main subdirectories:

1) field_database: Microsoft Access database containing site-specific data collected in the field in the summer of 2004.

2) GIS_shapefiles: ESRI shapefiles including surficial geology (terrain), ecosystem units, photo locations, carbon 14 dated sites, gravel pits, permafrost sites, and stratigraphic section sites.  ArcGIS files (geodatabase and layer symbologies) are also included in the ArcGIS_9 subfolder.  Relevant metadata is found in  the metadata subfolder.  All spatial data is in UTM Nad 83 Zone 9 projection.

3) maps_pdf: pdf versions of the surficial geology (Open File 2005-7) and biophysical (Open File 2005-8) maps produced for this project.  

4) photos: digital photographs of field sites and helicopter reconnaissance flights.  

For GIS users, you can hyperlink to the digitial photos with photos.shp, using the av_hotlink field.  Globally replace "M:\Panya\projects\watson_lake\CD_Package\photos" with the path to the appropriate CD drive or folder on your computer where you have copied the photos.
Photos can also be viewed by clicking on the hyperlinks in the MS Access database main form.  Again, you must first globally find/replace the path "M:\Panya\projects\watson_lake\CD_Package\photos" in the photos table for this functionality to work.

5) report: pdf version of summary report (Open File 2005-6) to accompany and interpret maps.
	

Recommended Citation
--------------------
In referring to this publication, please use the following citations:

Lipovsky, P.S. and McKenna, K., 2005.  Digital compilation of local-scale biophysical mapping for integrated resource management, Watson Lake area (NTS 105A/2), Yukon.  Yukon Geological Survey, Open File 2005-6(D), CD-ROM.


Contact Information
-------------------
Any revisions or additional information known to the user would be welcome and appreciated.  Questions, suggestions and comments regarding this project can be addressed to:

Panya Lipovsky                    
Tel: (867) 667-8520             
E-mail: Panya.Lipovsky@gov.yk.ca

or 

Karen McKenna           
E-mail: kmckenna@northwestel.net


Further Geoscience Information and Sales
----------------------------------------
Copies of other Yukon Geological Survey publications may be obtained from:

Geoscience Information and Sales
c/o Whitehorse Mining Recorder
102-300 Main Street / Box 2703 (K102)
Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada Y1A 2C6
phone (867) 667-5200, fax (867) 667-5150
e-mail geosales@gov.yk.ca

Many publications may be downloaded free of charge from the Yukon Geological Survey website: http://www.geology.gov.yk.ca


Known Limitations
-----------------
(1) Surficial geology / terrain and ecosystem units were digitized on-screen using high resolution scanned digital 1:40 000 scale air photographs in MicroStation DiapViewer.  The georeferencing of the air photographs did not match perfectly with the digital topographic data (NTDB), which accounts for a slight offset of up to 50-100 m in some places.  It was decided not to adjust these polygons to the current NTDB dataset.  The data fits better with the more accurate Geobase dataset, which will be released by Natural Resources Canada in the near future.

(2) Cutblocks were digitized from the same air photographs (1998 & 1999) as mentioned above, so those harvested after 1998 are not included in this dataset.  Please contact Yukon Government, Energy, Mines and Resources, Forest Resources for a complete cutblock dataset.



