Corresponding author: Andrew Sherin (
Academic editor:
The estuarine harbour of Sydney, Nova Scotia on the island of Cape Breton has supplied goods and services to humans since the Holocene transgression. As an urban marine ecosystem and strategically located maritime port, it has supported commercial fisheries, military campaigns, and coal and steel industries since the 16th century. Now in the post-industrial era of the Anthropocene, the good burghers of Sydney seek to re-vitalize the commercial port while maintaining the natural assets of the harbour. The recent completions of the tar ponds remediation, the dredge realignment of the shipping channel and creation of a large, new industrial surface, benchmark the next phase in the history of the Harbour.
The objective of the Sydney Harbour Atlas (Fig.
This paper presents the initial effort to create a Sydney Harbour Atlas in a partnership between the Coastal and Ocean Information Network Atlantic’s (COINAtlantic) and the Bras D’Or Institute of Cape Breton University. COINAtlantic’s mission is to promote, facilitate and influence information management, policies and programs that enhance Integrated Coastal and Ocean Management in Atlantic Canada (
A customized version of the COINAtlantic Search Utility (CSU) (
Version 1 of the Sydney Harbour Atlas displays, at opening, map layers from 4 main sources (see Table
Future developments include the addition of more ecosystem relevant map layers, the publication of OGC compliant Web Feature Services that would permit the user to stylize and analyze the data in their own GIS environment, the improvement of the layers window to provide easier user access to the many layers without scrolling, and expanding the richness of the metadata displayed in the “Additional Layer Information” window.
Andrew Sherin, Director, COINAtlantic Secretariat
Bruce Hatcher, Bras D’Or Institute, Cape Breton University
Andrew Sherin, COINAtlantic
Mary Kennedy, OBIS Canada
Jeff McKenna, Gateway Geomatics
Brittany MacGillivray, COINAtlantic
Paul Boudreau, International Ocean Institute Canada
Caelin Murray, Bras D’Or Institute, Cape Breton University
Nicholas Doane, COINAtlantic
Partial screen grab (search and additional information windows not shown) of the Sydney Harbour Atlas.
Examples of map layers for the Sydney Harbour Atlas by type of web mapping service.
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Canadian Marine Multibeam Bathymetric Data Web Map Service (WMS) | Government of Canada Natural Resources Canada |
Roads at 1:10,000 scale | Province of Nova Scotia, GeoNOVA |
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Sewer Outfalls | CBRM via Bras D’Or Institute |
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Meroplankton of Sydney Harbour | Cape Breton University |
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Green Crab ( |
Bras D’Or Institute |