Development Scenarios and Potential Cumulative
Effects: Slave Geological Province, N.W.T.
The Slave Geological Province (SGP) is a large
region of the Canadian Shield located in Canada's Northwest Territories
(NWT), still relatively undisturbed by development activities. The
nature of the area's geology makes it a prime candidate for mineral
exploration in search of gold, base metals, rare earths, uranium,
and diamonds. This combination of factors makes it an ideal focus
for developing and testing new and innovative methods for identifying
and evaluating cumulative environmental effects.
ESSA was engaged to develop a set of prototype
tools that would be useful aids in helping analysts recognize and
appraise the significance of potential cumulative effects in the
SGP. Our efforts focused on creating three complementary tools:
| 1. |
future development scenarios |
| 2. |
generic footprints; and |
| 3. |
a framework for linking effects of human activities
to those natural resources that might be expected to be significantly
affected. |
These three tools were designed to be used together,
and were intended for use by environmental assessment experts.
