The Alberta oil sands of northern Canada are significant component of the world’s petroleum resources – about one-third the size of the entire world’s known reserves of conventional crude oil. In 2003, Hatfield established a Fort McMurray office in support of a flagship project, the Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program (RAMP), which allowed Hatfield to establish long-term relationships with industry, government, Aboriginal peoples and the local communities.
Since that time, Hatfield has conducted over thirty projects within the oil sands region providing environmental, GIS/remote sensing, data management and project management expertise, with emphasis on aquatic resources. The following is a partial list of services/projects conducted to date:
- Environmental monitoring of climate and hydrology, water and sediment quality, benthic invertebrate communities, fish populations and acid-sensitive lakes.
- Baseline inventories and environmental impact assessments of aquatic resources related to proposed industrial developments, with emphasis on fish and fish habitat.
- Monitoring of wetland habitats related to in situ oil sands development.
- Construction monitoring and fish salvage operations related to instream activities by industry.
- Community-level GIS database development.
- Human health monitoring related to regional air quality.
- Integrating earth observation into sustainability development reporting.
- Remote sensing and GIS for mapping the progressive mining and reclamation activities within the oil sands region.
