ROADMAP.md

Roadmap

Project Scoping

This document outlines the evolving goals of the BEC Explorer. See Concept for requirements.

Stage 1: 'Recreate the Ecoregion Climate Data Explorer for BEC'

Things to keep:

• Hover-over identification of both geographic and climatic space
• Subsetting of the range of climate variables

###Things to change:

• Just do for the historic climates only. Future climates can be illustrated with trajectories
• Default to log-scale for precipitation, with option to turn off
• More detail at higher zoom levels (less generalized maps)

Data:

• ~200 Biogeoclimatic Variants. [14765 polygons] 500Mb shapefile (!), nested within 14 zones
• Also generalized to 1:20k/250k/2M, so perhaps could manage this with zoom levels
• Spatial detail of BEC variants (on background of ecoregions)
• Spatial detail of 14 BEC zones (on background of ecoregions)

Stage 2: Add Functionality for Focal Units

Clicking on a polygon or scatterpoint selects a “focal” unit.

1. Time series. Add a 1901-2012 time series for Focal unit (one time series each for the primary and secondary variables).
   • Time series would be located above the variable histograms
   • Individual years could be included on the scatterplot to show range of interannual variability
   • Hover-over could show the running mean time series for a secondary unit
2. Climate change trajectory
   • 1960s, 1990s, 2020s, 2050s, 2080s normals for ensemble mean
     • Linked by a line
     • Show for RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP8.5
   • Could be scaled up to include ensemble members (15 GCMs)
3. Narrative text
   • Description of the focal unit
     • E.g. https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/rco/research/eco/bec_web/docs/CWHdm.htm ii. E.g. Bunchgrass / Ponderosa Pine (BG/PP): “The Bunchgrass and Ponderosa Pine zones are limited to low-elevation areas in the rainshadow of the southern mountains where dry, hot growing-season climates prevail. Grasslands, and ponderosa pine or Douglas-fir forest, * the dominant upland vegetation. Wetlands are primarily marshes.”
     • https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/pubs/docs/Lmh/Lmh23-3.pdf
     • E.g. https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/pubs/docs/bro/bro54.pdf
     • https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/pubs/Docs/Srs/Srs06.htm

Stage 3: Analog Identification

• Hover over a focal unit’s projected condition to show the best current analog (color themed by similarity)
• Analog similarity could be hard-coded as seasonal sigma similarity, or calculated from the 2D sigma similarity of the primary and secondary selected variables.
• Need to go with a fairly fine-scale mapping unit (US level 4 ecoregions, Canadian ecodistricts).

Data:

• US ecoregion level IV: (7242 polygons)

• Compared to BGC zones of british columbia

• Ecodistricts (top) versus Ecoregions (bottom)

• Ecodistricts (1025 polygons)

• Canadian Ecodistricts vs. US level 4 ecoregions.