Urbanization and population growth place increasing demands on public spaces, while community involvement plays a vital role in ensuring these spaces are inclusive, sustainable, and responsive to the needs of residents. Public space development, in turn, significantly influences the social and ecological dynamics of urban environments, presenting both challenges and opportunities for sustainable growth. Addressing these intertwined issues requires a comprehensive approach that considers social, environmental, and economic factors. This research leverages systems thinking to explore the connections between public space development, community participation, and sustainability in the rapidly growing municipalities of Langford and Colwood, British Columbia.

Utilizing Eisenhardt’s eightfold case study approach, this study combines document analysis and semi-structured interviews with urban planners, council members, and community stakeholders. The research examines the strategies and processes of public space development since the municipalities’ collaborative Official Community Plan (OCP) efforts in 2007. Additionally, the All Quadrants All Levels (AQAL) framework is applied to ensure a thorough exploration of the multiple perspectives influencing public space development.

The findings will provide valuable insights into how Langford and Colwood incorporate community input into urban planning and the long-term effects on public space amenity development. By offering practical recommendations, this research aims to inform policymakers and urban planners on best practices for fostering resilient, community-driven urban spaces that align with broader sustainability goals. The study contributes to the evolving conversation on community-centric urban development and regenerative tourism, offering a model that can be adapted to other municipalities.

Sustainable community development requires a holistic approach that balances environmental conservation, economic growth, and social well-being. This proposal for Greater Victoria, BC, outlines a comprehensive strategy emphasizing sustainable urban planning practices to harmonize these critical elements. Drawing from crucial insights in the provided research, this proposal addresses the challenges and needs, particularly its rapid urbanization, environmental pressures, and growing population.

The strategy focuses on integrating land use planning with water management to create a framework that mitigates the adverse effects of urban sprawl and enhances ecosystem services, ensuring the sustainability of natural resources. In addition, the proposal prioritizes green infrastructure development and low-impact urban designs, which help manage stormwater, reduce pollution, and preserve natural habitats.

In improving social welfare, the plan also emphasizes affordable housing, accessible public spaces, and community engagement initiatives that promote social inclusion and equity. The approach underscores the importance of a balanced and integrated system to ensure the long-term sustainability of the community.

This study explores the potential for establishing a community garden in Langford, British Columbia, as a means to enhance urban sustainability and foster social cohesion amid rapid urbanization. As Langford experiences significant population growth, the city faces the challenge of integrating essential green spaces into its development plans to balance ecological health with residents’ quality of life. This research assesses the socio-economic, environmental, and educational benefits of community gardens, identifying them as multifunctional green infrastructures that can improve urban air quality, promote biodiversity, and support food security.

Using a mixed-methods approach, the study combines a literature review with interviews of community members, urban planners, and garden managers. Site analyses further explore potential locations and logistical considerations for implementing the garden. Findings reveal that community gardens offer a range of benefits, including enhanced social cohesion, reduced urban heat, and increased community engagement in sustainable practices. However, challenges such as land access, resource limitations, and the need for sustained community involvement must be addressed for successful integration.

The study provides recommendations for local policymakers and urban planners, emphasizing the need for long-term land security, collaborative community engagement, and partnerships with local organizations to ensure sustainable operation. Overall, this project highlights the role of community gardens as pivotal tools in urban greening, presenting Langford with a model for sustainable development that aligns with broader ecological and social goals.

In recent years, virtual reality (VR) technologies have emerged as a powerful means for developing planning tools, offering immersive experiences that enhance the ability to comprehend and visualize real-world changes. While conventional computer- and paper-based visualization methods provide valuable insights, VR uniquely delivers an immersive perspective. Despite its potential, a significant gap exists in comparative research evaluating the strengths and limitations of VR tools versus conventional computer approaches in planning applications. This study addresses this gap, and it uses watershed management planning in the Millstream Creek Watershed as a case study. A specialized VR management tool will be developed for this watershed, accompanied by a series of workshops and an open house event involving stakeholder engagement. These activities will compare the effectiveness of VR tools with conventional computer visualization methods in decision-making processes. The primary objective is to assess the comparative advantages and disadvantages of each approach and explore the potential of VR tools in watershed management. The findings from this research will offer critical insights to inform and advance future planning practices.

This study assesses the impact of urban development policies on Langford’s urban forest, focusing on forest cover changes from 2001 to 2022. Using GIS data, satellite imagery, and policy analysis of documents such as Langford’s Official Community Plan (O.C.P.) and Urban Forest Management Plan, the research examines how forest loss, uneven canopy distribution, and reliance on private lands affect both environmental resilience and community well-being. The findings emphasize the need for balanced policy decisions that integrate sustainable development strategies, preserve green spaces, and address gaps in urban forest management. This study highlights the importance of protecting urban forests to support biodiversity, reduce climate vulnerability, and enhance quality of life, offering evidence-based recommendations for policymakers to foster growth that aligns with environmental preservation.

This research explores the potential of participatory mapping to foster a sense of place among diverse stakeholders, contributing to co-designing a user-centred visualization platform for integrated environmental planning. Through the Millstream Creek Watershed case study, face-to-face workshops with residents and workers utilized participatory GIS mapping to identify areas of value and concern. This approach facilitated the co-production of knowledge, revealing a shared sense of place deeply intertwined with the active stewardship of the watershed. Results show how participatory mapping (1) facilitated information sharing relevant to stakeholder interests; (2) identified a critical corridor stretching from Langford to Colwood, characterized by high ecological value and significant stakeholder concern, particularly in the context of rapid development; (3) stimulated discussion on potential management strategies; and (4) fostered the emergence of personalized visualizations and qualitative insights, informing the co-design of an ideal future state for the watershed. This future state will be integrated into a visualization tool that prioritizes ecological restoration, community health, and climate resilience, demonstrating the potential of participatory mapping to incorporate stakeholder perspectives and place-based values into environmental planning processes, supporting informed decision-making and collaborative action towards sustainable futures.

Food systems are highly vulnerable to the effects of anthropogenic climate change and environmental degradation. At the same time, food systems contribute significantly to the production of greenhouse gases that drive climate change and negatively impact ecosystems. Such a vicious cycle of cause and effect demands a transition to sustainable food systems, and this is best done through integrated planning and policy perspectives that tackle interconnected socioeconomic and environmental concerns and goals. This research applies systems thinking to map relationships among food systems planning and other sustainability priorities, namely those related to climate, biodiversity, and health. The study engaged stakeholders in the Comox Valley region, British Columbia, to develop a causal loop diagram, which was subsequently analyzed using the Girvan-Newman community detection algorithm to identify closely connected nodes or ‘clusters’. The results of this work provide a comprehensive understanding of how local food systems’ challenges and opportunities connect and integrate with other local and regional sustainability objectives. The research identified 123 systems nodes, which were organized into five categories: food, climate, biodiversity, health, and governance. The community detection method was applied to reveal 15 clusters among these nodes. The methodology employed in this research, integrating the development of a causal loop diagram, and applying community detection, is novel and contributes to the growing body of literature advocating for an integrated planning approach to address the complex challenges facing local and regional food systems.

This policy analysis examines Langford’s renewable energy policies within its Official Community Plan (OCP) and the major renewable-related matters included in the new refresh; it explores alternatives for promoting the adoption of renewable energy sources in the city. The study comprehensively reviews relevant literature and best practices tailored to Langford’s environmental and socio-economic context. In addition, expert interviews will be conducted to identify challenges and opportunities for scaling up renewable energy solutions at the community level. The OCP stresses the importance of climate action, setting ambitious targets to reduce the community’s per capita greenhouse gas emissions from residential energy consumption by 10% below 2020 levels by 2030, which is consistent with provincial targets. Langford’s OCP emphasizes the need to encourage sustainable development, infrastructure, and landscaping, promote energy efficiency in new and existing residential and institutional buildings, and diversify local energy supply with renewable sources to support climate action initiatives such as green building retrofits and energy efficiency for municipal and public buildings.

This research presents a pivotal moment for Langford to expand its renewable energy infrastructure and adopt policies that accelerate the transition to sustainable energy consumption with existing technology in the same way the OCP update addresses mitigating the climate crisis, building quality cities, and reducing gas emissions. This analysis aims to offer strategic recommendations to support the city’s long-term sustainability and resilience goals. The city of Langford’s goals is an opportunity to encourage the increased use of renewable energy, so that the city combats climate change while improving economic vitality.

This study addresses the gap in Bamberton Quarry’s Reclamation and Closure Program, focusing on regulatory compliance and technical content. Given the complexity of current regulations and environmental management requirements, the research investigates how to enhance the quarry’s reclamation program and future land use.

Using a convergent parallel design with a constructivist and case study approach, the study combines historical data analysis with stakeholder perspectives. The methodology involves interviewing 25 participants across various stakeholder groups, including Malahat Nations, Saanich Inlet Society, the operator company, consultants, and academic experts.

The research aims to identify gaps perceived by different stakeholders and proposes recommendations to improve the current Reclamation and Closure Program. This is particularly significant given the quarry’s location in the environmentally sensitive Saanich Inlet. The main limitation is the potential difficulty securing Malahat Nations’ involvement due to environmental sensitivities. Findings will inform the revaluation of future land use viability for future generations.

Potential metal contamination originating from race cars at an abandoned raceway in the region of Millstream-Langford on Vancouver Island is hypothesized to pose a risk to environmental and human health. This thesis uses Millstream Creek in Langford as the study region for assessing whether the concentration of metals in sediment exceed federal and provincial guidelines for the protection of environmental and human health. Twenty-nine sediment samples were collected along Millstream Creek, which were then analyzed with an x-ray fluorescence spectrometer to identify the concentrations of metals contained within them. The results of the study indicated that sediment samples adjacent to the race track had higher statistically significant concentrations of copper and nickel. Similarly, the pH of the water was found to be higher. The study’s conclusion is that the analyzed metals pose no significant risks to environmental or human health, refuting its null hypothesis.