The overall research project includes five paths (Figure 2) beginning with 1) geospatial analysis to systematically identify and compare island highlands in Canada’s continental plains, 2) development of initial place-based portraits of each island highland and surrounding areas from information in the public domain, 3) local knowledge interviews, 4) support of community training opportunities, and 5) place-based workshops focused on multi-perspective knowledge integration and application.
The first path, which we have labeled geospatial analysis, involves a) systematically identifying island highlands from across the continental plains, b) determining their spatial extent and boundaries based only on topographical relief, c) identifying adjacent flat lowlands of equivalent land area, and d) comparing each island highland to its adjacent flat lowland focused on attributes like forest cover, land use, road density, protected & conserved areas, biodiversity observations, and place names. A second path, labeled geobiocultural portraits and initiated soon after the first, involves our McGill-based research team preparing a draft geobiocultural portrait of each island highland, from information available in the public domain. This portrait describes the physical highland feature and its geological origins, the biodiversity the highland supports, and the history of its people and their relationships with the highland and its surrounding lowlands. A third path, labeled local knowledge interviews and initiated after completion of a draft geobiocultural portrait is completed, involves reaching out to a diversity of people living on or around these island highlands, who know these island highlands well, to determine if they are willing to share their place-based knowledge with us, to help us better understand the place, to improve our draft geobiocultural portrait, and to better inform our upland vs. lowland comparisons. A fourth path, which we have labeled community training, research, & education experience and will initiate according to recommendations received during local knowledge interviews, involves identifying a local youth, 18-35 years of age, who can be employed to conduct additional interviews, revise the geobiocultural portrait, secure additional information layers to advance with the geospatial analysis. A fifth path, which we have labeled place-based workshops and would initiate only if strong local support emerges through the community research coordinator and from the local knowledge interviews, would involve multi-perspective knowledge integration and application workshops focused on the resilience and health of the twenty highlands, as understood through Indigenous and Western ways of knowing about topics intended to inform decision making and action. These five paths all co-inform each other with the overall goal being an well-integrated, co-produced, and place-based understanding of the values and action-oriented priorities for each highland feature.
