Open-Source Watershed Science
The Challenge
Governments, First Nations, non-profits, and stewardship organizations across British Columbia need reliable ways to understand their watersheds — whether they're planning restoration, assessing fish habitat, monitoring water quality, or responding to climate-driven changes. But the technical barriers are high. Critical information remains scattered across provincial databases, historic archives, and specialized models — difficult to assemble and overly dependent on outside specialists.
Our Approach
We believe science should be a public good, not a commercial product. Working alongside stewardship organizations, First Nations, and agencies across BC, we've built an integrated open-source system that brings it all together — stream network modelling, floodplain analysis, land cover change detection, nutrient loading, aquatic health monitoring, field data collection, and dynamic reporting.
What we develop together becomes freely available to the broader community — so every project strengthens the tools, and every partnership compounds across watersheds and years.
How It Works
An integrated, open-source framework that connects provincial data, spatial analysis, field collection, and reporting into a single system. Each tool feeds the next.
Model any stream in BC
fresh (FWA-Referenced Spatial Hydrology) — Query the provincial stream network, classify habitat by gradient and channel width, delineate watersheds, and model connectivity for any species. One tool, any stream, any question.
Map the floodplain
flooded (Floodplain Delineation) — Delineate where rivers do geomorphic work — sediment storage, nutrient exchange, riparian recruitment. Using elevation data from our provincial LiDAR catalog of over 50,000 tiles.
Detect what's changed
drift (Detecting Riparian and Inland Floodplain Transitions) — Track land cover change inside floodplains over time using satellite imagery. Quantify where tree cover has been lost, where agriculture is expanding, and where riparian areas are degrading.
Find the historic photos
fly (Airphoto Retrieval and Coverage Selection) — Download, georeference, and select from decades of historic aerial photographs — ground-truth current conditions against documented prior state.
Assess climate trends
cd (Climate Departure) — Analyze temperature, precipitation, and soil moisture departures for any watershed using global reanalysis data.
Build the field project
rfp (Reproducible Field Projects) — Assemble a complete, field-ready GIS project for any watershed — provincial datasets, habitat models, historic imagery, and digital field forms that write directly to provincial database formats. Deploy to mobile devices for collaborative offline collection.
Publish interactive reports and print-ready PDFs
One set of source files produces interactive online reports and print-ready PDFs — version-controlled, reproducible, and publicly accessible. When new data arrives, the report rebuilds.
What This Looks Like in Practice
Long-term programs where the system is in production — delivering results, building capacity, and advancing the tools with every project.
Watershed Restoration & Conservation
Aquatic restoration planning across British Columbia — from the Neexdzii Kwah watershed restoration framework to fish passage assessment across Skeena, Peace, Fraser, and Elk River regions. 40+ published reports since 2020.
Explore →Aquatic Monitoring & Assessment
Nutrient loading analysis for Kootenay Lake and Arrow Lakes Reservoir. Benthic community health assessment. Kokanee stock assessment. Decades of monitoring data integrated into reproducible workflows.
Explore →Open Source Software
Every tool in the pipeline is publicly available. R packages with documentation, STAC catalogs with provincial coverage, field form templates anyone can use. Built in the open, improving with every project.
Explore →Our methods are open source. Transparent, reproducible, and built to share.
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