A GEOB 479 Research Project
Urban Bird Populations in Vancouver
ABOUT US
For our term project, I was inspired by the Planet Earth II documentary on animals living in urban environments. In the episode’s captivating scenes, David Attenborough describes how some species of birds have adapted to the skyscrapers that have replaced their habitats and they have marvellously found a way to thrive in this altered environment. With this thought in mind I wanted to see how bird populations here in Vancouver have responded to the rapid urbanization of the landscape as more people have recently immigrated to the city.
I first analyzed how bird sighting trends have responded through time and whether or not these trends followed with the city’s development pattern. The second part of my project consisted with using a weighted sum process to identify conditions in the city that would be ideal to sustain bird populations. I created a habitat suitability surface to reflect my findings. You can read more about my findings of urban birds in Vancouver by clicking on the buttons below!