Urban geology provides engineers, planners, decision makers, and the general public with the geoscience information required for sound regional planning in densely populated areas. Urban geology studies rely on diverse branches of earth sciences such as hydrology, engineering geology, geochemistry, stratigraphy, and geomorphology in order to build a three-dimensional model of the character of the land and to explain the geological processes involved in the dynamic equilibrium of the local environment. The geoscience information derived from various sources such as borehole logs, geological maps, hydrological reports and digital elevation models, is compiled in a digital format and stored in georeferenced databases in the form of point, linear, and polygonal data. This information constitutes the geoscience knowledge base which is then processed by Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to integrate the various sources of information and produce derived graphics, maps and models describing the geological infrastructure and response of the geological environment to human activities.

• Ottawa-Gatineau
  • Urban Geology of Canada's National Capital Area
    Urban Geology of Canada's National Capital Area is a pilot project aiming at developing approaches, methodologies and standards that can be applied to other major urban centres of the country, while providing the geoscience knowledge required for sound regional planning and environmental protection of the National Capital Area.

• St. Lawrence Valley
  • Urban and Environmental Geology of the St. Lawrence Valley
    The aim of the Urban and Environmental Geology of the St. Lawrence Valley project is to provide geoscience knowledge required for sound regional planning, environmental protection and sustainable development of the St. Lawrence Lowlands. The study area includes the St. Lawrence Valley and valleys of tributary rivers from Lake Ontario (Kingston) to the Gaspe peninsula.

• Vancouver
  • GeoMap Vancouver
    GeoMap Vancouver is a geological map of the Vancouver metropolitan area. This area is underlain by diverse geological materials with different physical properties. The purpose of GeoMap Vancouver is to show the surface distribution of these materials and to summarize material characteristics that are relevant to engineering, the environment, and land-use planning.

  • Vancouver's Landscape
    Vancouver's landscape -- the land surface of the Vancouver metropolitan area -- has formed through the action of diverse natural processes operating over the vast expanse of geological time. Many of the photographs surrounding the central shaded-relief map show natural processes that are slowly modifying the land surface and that impose important constraints on land use. Other photographs illustrate elements of the geological history of the Vancouver area that can be read from this landscape.

  • Vancouver Rocks
    Vancouver is famous for its mix of mountain, rain forest, ocean shore and urban life. This landscape is carved from a bedrock collage of different rock types, each with a unique geological history and landscape form.