CASCADIA BIOREGION ATLAS
A COLLABORATIVE STUDENT ATLAS WITH MAPS AND SPATIAL DATASETS CREATED BY GIS CERTIFICATE CANDIDATES IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT AT WWU
The Cascadia Bioregion Atlas is a collaboratively written living atlas of the Cascadia Bioregion created by GIS Certificate candidates at Western Washington University with guidance by Dr. Aquila Flower:
“A bioregion is a “bio-cultural region” defined by the natural geographic boundaries of ecosystems, watersheds, and human communities, rather than by political boundaries. Bioregions are a powerful concept for organizing regional identities and guiding locally appropriate management decisions. The Cascadia Bioregion encompasses the Columbia and Fraser watersheds, as well as other adjacent watersheds draining into the Pacific Ocean.
Creating maps or conducting spatial analysis for the Cascadia Bioregion or other transboundary international regions is often very challenging because datasets are frequently restricted to a single country, state/province, or other political boundary. Datasets from different sources may not line up spatially or cover the same time period and often use different categories, units, or definitions for the variables they record. Students enrolled in Advanced GIS Applications during Winter 2021 used this challenge as a way to practice the geospatial data management and analysis skills they learned throughout their GIS Certificate classes.”
