The British Columbia Marine Conservation Analysis (BCMCA) is a collaborative project assembling and analyzing spatial information about Canada's Pacific Ocean. The overall goal of the BCMCA is to identify marine areas of high conservation value and marine areas important to human use. Results of the project are intended to inform and help advance marine planning initiatives in BC by providing collaborative, peer-reviewed scientific analyses based on the best ecological and human use spatial data at scales relevant to a BC coast-wide analysis.This benthic habitat classification is a coastwide application of that used in the Gwaii Haanas NMCA, which itself an adaption of the benthic habitat model developed by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) (Ferdana et al., 2006) and applied to marine ecoregional planning throughout continental US. Like the TNC methodology, this benthic habitat model combines three parameters: (i) landscape features, (ii) depth, and (iii) substrate in order to identify areas of similar benthic characteristics. The Benthic Terrain Modeller (BTM) tool developed by NOAA Coastal Services was used to help generate four landscape features that describe the terrain of the seafloor (depressions, slopes, flats and ridges). We combined the four landscape features with four ecologically meaningful depth ranges and four types of substrate from an existing data layer created as input to the BC Marine Ecological Classification System (MSRM, 2002). In total, 64 unique benthic habitat classes were delineated. To date, the benthic habitat classes have not been ground truthed. For more information on the methods used please see the processing steps section.
