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 don't see ourselves as separate from the watersheds we work within. Taking care of the land and water is taking care of ourselves, and the communities we live in. We work in the open because shared methods, shared tools, and shared findings are how we move the needle faster — on conservation and restoration, on understanding, on justice for the places and people we care about.
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.
Our analytical tools, data, and methods are publicly available — so every project strengthens shared infrastructure, 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 (Freshwater Referenced Spatial Hydrology) — Query the provincial stream network, classify habitat, delineate watersheds, and model connectivity for any species.
Score and prioritize
link (Watershed Point Interpretation) — Match, score, and interpret any point data on the stream network — barriers, monitoring stations, sample sites, or traditional use locations.
Map the floodplain
flooded (Floodplain Delineation) — Delineate where rivers do geomorphic work — sediment storage, nutrient exchange, riparian recruitment. Using provincial LiDAR elevation data served through our 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
We assemble complete, field-ready GIS projects 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
Our analytical tools are publicly available. R packages with documentation, STAC catalogs with provincial coverage, dynamic reports anyone can access. Built in the open wherever transparency improves science.
Explore →Our methods are open source. Transparent, reproducible, and built to share.
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