Landscape Ecological Assessment and Planning (LEAP) – Geospatial Benchmark Analysis

The Landscape Ecological Assessment and Planning (LEAP) framework utilizes geospatial modeling and optimization techniques to improve land reclamation and development planning. The LEAP tool benchmarks over 3.7 million hectares in Alberta, models forest ecosystem growth, establishes goals for the future landscape and creates an action plan complete with a rigorous monitoring program. This project summarizes the approach for projecting future oil sands development on the landscape, thereby providing the ability to analyze landscape parameters that are influenced by development. The final result will be a suite of alternative management options that optimize a defined landscape objective for the future. This project contains land-based benchmarking maps for high-interest areas.

This project outlines methods for land-based benchmarking to create future footprint modeling and conduct analyses on these data. These reports summarize the 5 classes of metrics used in benchmark analysis for the following focus areas: Caribou, Algar, ConocoPhillips, Nexen, OSLI, Statoil, and Suncor.