Bute Inlet Geo-Hazards & Ramsay West - 2024 - Airborne Coastal Observatory

The Homalco First Nation (HFN) has secured funding through the Indigenous Watersheds Initiative (IWI) to advance two critical projects aimed at protecting and understanding their ancestral lands. The first project focuses on assessing watershed health across Xwémalhkwu (Homalco) Territory, which includes vital ecosystems supporting fish, wildlife, and the broader ecological balance. The second project targets identifying and evaluating geomorphic threats, such as landslides, erosion, and sedimentation, which could affect watershed stability and the health of aquatic habitats. Together, these initiatives aim to enhance the Nation's capacity to manage their lands sustainably while addressing current and future environmental challenges. Hakai Institute has been invited to play a key role in these projects, offering its expertise in watershed analysis and geomorphology. Hakai’s contributions will involve delineating and characterizing sub-watersheds within the Homathko, Southgate, and Orford watersheds—major river systems within Homalco territory.

The Hakai Institute’s Airborne Coastal Observatory (ACO) is an advanced platform for environmental monitoring and research that uses state-of-the-art airborne technologies to collect high-resolution data along coastal regions. The data collected by the ACO in Bute Inlet supports a hazard assessment carried out by Pierre Friele to identify potential glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF) hazards, as well as debris flows and other landslide potential.