Planning ahead.

• Author: Allford, Jennifer
• Position: Viewpoint

N. long ago, a class of Grade 4 students in Glenbow Elementary School in Cochrane got to work planning Alberta's future.

First, they watched a series of videos exploring different industrial land-uses such as forestry, energy and agriculture. They also watched videos about other land-use factors including water quality, the health of fish, greenhouse gas emissions, GDP and the human population. After the videos, the students split into groups and presented a poster about an industrial land-use in the province.

And one day later that week, right after recess, the kids settled in with Alberta Tomorrow, a sophisticated, web-enabled tool that uses GIS technology and satellite imagery to simulate the effects of people on Alberta's wildlife habitat, ecosystem services and natural resource production.

The tool lets the students examine a range of indicators and set 30-year goals for Alberta--in essence, they draw the future they'd like to see for the province. It becomes very clear, very quickly, that there are tradeoffs, and in order to create the future they want for Alberta, there needs to be careful planning today. This plain illustration of the benefits and liabilities around various land-uses really gets the students thinking, and talking.

"A typical initial Grade 4 reaction to liabilities is to just stop industrial development to save wildlife habitat," says Jennifer Janzen, who takes Alberta Tomorrow into elementary, junior high and high school classrooms all over the province as executive director of the Alberta Tomorrow Foundation. "One (student) was even heard to say: 'Ya, but that industry contributes to a higher GDP which helps fund our schools!"'

The students have robust discussions around questions such as "How are natural resources used by Albertans?" and "How do Albertans deal with competing demands from land-use?" And it's that kind of conversation that gives the students "a thorough understanding of how industry contributes to our GDP and economy, and how a balance between the economic benefits and environmental liabilities is what's important," says Janzen, a former teacher.

Brad Stelfox a landscape ecologist with ALCES Landscape & Land-Use was inspired to help create Alberta Tomorrow after a number of conversations with politicians in his day job as a consultant delivering land-use cumulative effects modelling tools and strategic land-use planning advice.

"The guidance I was getting back from politicians was yes, this is an...