How it Works

BC Tomorrow is a Canadian non-profit registered charity who's mission is to help students and teachers explore sustainability when considering land use decisions in British Columbia.

To accomplish this, BC Tomorrow is developing an innovative online land use simulator using digital mapping that gives students, teachers, and the general public the ability to explore alternative land-use scenarios and compare the cumulative effects on environmental, economic, and societal values.

Educators currently have few tools available for students to learn about the integration of economy, environment, and society.

The BC Tomorrow land-use simulator is a web-based, spatial mapping software that gives users the ability to view land-use relationships and understand the cumulative effects of multiple overlapping human land uses with natural forces like wildfire and climate change.

Users first see historical change in their selected watersheds and then set targets for various socio-economic and environmental values.

From there, they apply their knowledge and creativity to work through a scenario-planning approach and create a range of future land-use scenarios to try and achieve their targets.

Results can be shared with teachers, classmates and the community. Field trips and other data can also be added through a mobile app to enhance and confirm land-use understandings.

The BC Tomorrow land-use simulator will be available free of charge to students, teachers, educational organizations, and the general public.

A pilot version will be run in the North Okanagan Shuswap-School District No. 83 in the 2017-18 school year and in the following year the model will be made broadly available. 

 In the below video BC Tomorrow's Executive Director Dave Ramsay discusses a student's example of Land Use Planning using the model. Also he describes how BC Tomorrow is being used as a powerful teaching tool in Classrooms.

Want to see more? Executive Director Dave Ramsay walks you through the inception of BC Tomorrow here