BURRARD INLET SHORELINE CHANGE – BASELINE ASSESSMENT

1 INTRODUCTION
BURRARD INLET SHORELINE CHANGE – BASELINE ASSESSMENT
Final Report
Section 1: Introduction
1.1 Background and Project Objectives
The Burrard Inlet Environmental Action Program (BIEAP) is an inter-governmental partnership that
coordinates environmental management of Burrard Inlet. In 2002, BIEAP approved the Consolidated
Environmental Management Plan for Burrard Inlet (CEMP, BIEAP 2002), a document that contains a
series of goals aimed at improving management of the Inlet through monitoring, habitat protection
and enhancement. In 2008, the Burrard Inlet Environmental Indicators Report was released to help
guide planning for future development in Burrard Inlet by providing information on seven indicators.
The following report was produced to provide baseline information on an eighth indicator that
measures the status of marine habitat and shoreline in Burrard Inlet.
1.2 Site Description
Burrard Inlet is a productive marine and terrestrial ecosystem. It is unique from other inlets in British
Columbia in the lack of a sill at its mouth and the relatively shallow slope of adjacent shoreline.
Burrard Inlet includes over 11,000 ha of water and seabed, 190 km of shoreline and a drainage
basin of 98,000 ha. The mean tidal range within the inlet is 3.3 m. The main freshwater inputs are
from the Seymour River (monthly mean discharges of 3.8 to 24.9 m 3 ) and the Capilano River (5.7 to
42.8 m 3 ) (Nijman 1990). The deepest waters contain salinity of 29 to 30 ppt, while surface salinity
can vary from 20 to 25 ppt during the winter runoff, dropping down to less than 20 ppt during the
summer due to runoff from the Fraser River (Nijman 1990). Surface water temperatures vary
seasonally, from 5ºC in the winter to 20ºC in the summer.
1.3 Data Sources
Four primary data sources were referred to for completion of this report:
Shoreline Classification (M.Sc. thesis by Dana Haggarty)
Historical analysis of shoreline change over time by Integrated Mapping Technologies (I MT)
using aerial photographs from the 1930s and 2005
Habitat inventory/land use classification (Caslys Consulting 2009)
BIEAP 2009 field verification and ground-truthing.
1.3.1 Shoreline Classification Study
Haggarty (2001) examined fish habitat in terms of substrate type and shoreline in Burrard Inlet.
Substrate was chosen because it is a strong indicator of habitat type and is often strongly correlated
with physical properties such as exposure and slope. From a management perspective, substrate is
also considered a useful parameter because it can be mapped, is relatively stable and is often
December 2009
Project No. 1056983
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