This research area focuses on how geospatial technologies are shaping today’s emerging digital workforce and economy. Rather than examining technologies in isolation, we study how tools such as GIS, remote sensing, modelling platforms, and digital twins are adopted together and used to represent, analyze, and manage complex systems.

A key focus of this work is understanding the skills, training pathways, and institutional structures needed to support effective technology uptake. Through research funded by the Future Skills Centre, we have examined how universities, industry, and government can better align training and education with rapidly evolving digital practices.

This work contributes to national conversations about innovation, workforce development, and the delivery of large-scale projects that increasingly rely on integrated digital systems.

Wildlife & Forest Conservation on Southern Vancouver Island

For over six years, the Surreal Lab has worked in partnership with multiple organizations to monitor and understand wildlife across southern Vancouver Island. Partners include Capital Regional District Parks, CRD Water, the Greater Victoria Water Supply Area, the Coexisting with Carnivores Alliance, the Habitat Acquisition Trust, and the Coastal Douglas-fir Conservation Partnership.

This research focuses on large mammals, including black-tailed deer, Roosevelt elk, wolves, black bears, and cougars. Our work seeks to understand where these species occur, how recreation and land use may influence their behaviour and distribution, and how wildlife populations are responding to climate change and urban development pressures.

We use technologies such as wildlife camera networks combined with advanced spatial and analytical methods to generate evidence-based insights. This includes examining movement patterns, identifying areas of high ecological importance, and simulating potential wildlife corridors to support long-term conservation planning.

In collaboration with the Capital Regional District’s Watershed Protection Division, the uCanadian Forest Service, and ESSA Technologies, the Surreal Lab has been involved for over five years in an NSERC-funded research program focused on forest health and wildfire risk under a changing climate.

This work uses forest simulation modelling to examine how forest stands on southern Vancouver Island are likely to grow, change, and experience mortality under future climate conditions. We assess how these changes influence wildfire risk and explore how different management strategies may reduce vulnerability and support adaptation.

In parallel, we have conducted paleoecological research by extracting sediment cores from lakes in the Greater Victoria Water Supply Area. These records provide insight into forest and wildfire conditions over the past 10,000 years, allowing us to understand long-term patterns and use the past to inform future wildfire management strategies.