Greater Vancouver Residential Build-out Model & Capacity Assessment

As part of the Livable Region Strategic Plan (LRSP) review process, a residential build-out model of the region was developed in conjunction with Metro Vancouver staff over the period of a year in late 2005 and 2006.  The work entailed co-conducting a residential capacity assessment for the region by various levels of geography and by structural type of dwelling.  The model was developed using CommunityViz, an extension to ArcGIS, that allows “what if” scenarios to be developed and tested.  This project had five key elements:  developing the data inputs, identifying a set of land use “archetypes”, generating an estimate of housing capacity at build-out, developing average household size factors, and estimating population at build-out.

In 2007, Sheltair assisted in reconciling the database based on input received through a municipal validation process.  In 2008, Sheltair is assisting in applying the model to develop alternative land use scenarios for a rapid transit and rapid bus scenario analysis.  The location of existing and proposed rapid transit and rapid bus stations were incorporated into the model.  A set of residential intensification scenarios within 400m and 800m buffers of the station locations was then developed to test various “what if” scenarios.