Jordan Hayes.
Silvacom. 3012 – 91 St. NW, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Society enjoys a wide range of benefits from the resources and processes supplied by nature. These ecosystem services include the maintenance of biodiversity as well as the production of important ecosystem goods such as industrial products, wildlife, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. As market preferences shift to green products, there is increasing interest in the supply of ecosystem services including biomass, one of Alberta’s most abundant resources. What’s missing is dependable, investment-grade information about:
- How much exists,
- Where it’s located,What its components and quality are,
- What costs, constraints and commitments are associated with its extraction, and
- What environmental implications there are for managing these resources.
In 2012, Alberta Innovates – Bio Solutions and Silvacom began working on the Alberta Bio-Resource Information Management System (BRIMS) as part of Alberta’s Ecosystem Services Roadmap. BRIMS is specifically designed to respond to the need for data and information related to Alberta’s ecosystem services and bio-resources.
BRIMS is currently in its final phase of development that will see the completion of a fully functional web application that will integrate key ecosystem services inventories including biomass into a centralized database. When completed, BRIMS will provide all organizations with one stop access to investment grade, spatially explicit data and will position Alberta as a global leader in the collation and provision of ecosystem service and bio-resource data.
Our presentation will introduce BRIMS, give a quick status overview of the program and highlight some case studies that prove its value to the province.