Alberta is at a tipping point having seen unprecedented growth in the past few years that has put a tremendous strain on our natural landscape. Land-uses such as oil and gas, agriculture, forestry, settlement, and recreation are all competing for limited resources. All of these land-uses provide benefits for Albertans, but most often also come with environmental liabilities. 

Decisions we make in our province affect the environment, economy and people and have far reaching effects on the provincial, national and global scale. We can no longer develop the land in an unplanned way, without considering the future impacts of our actions.

As Dr. Brad Stelfox states, “One of the most critical issues confronting contemporary society is the need to effectively plan our future landscapes. Proper planning requires an understanding of the trade-offs being made as we choose to how to provide Albertans with food, fiber, shelter, recreation, energy, transportation and other infrastructures.”

We believe that students need to see the “big picture”. It is important that our students know the natural regions of Alberta, the benefits and liabilities of using our natural resources, but also the cumulative effects of all our resource use together. A thorough understanding of our impact on both the economy and environment are necessary to make sustainable land-use plans for our future that will ensure we have both a prosperous economy and healthy environment.  These concepts may sound complex however we have proven they can be understood by Alberta students.

We influence change by providing land-use simulation software and learning materials that allow users to learn about the impacts of our actions by:

• Exploring our impacts on the economy and environment,
• Discovering how we can learn from the past, Creating a sustainable land-use plan for our future,
• Facilitating public consultation,
• And by providing school programs and the tools to help all Albertans understand the consequences of our actions both virtually and in-person.

Our simulator, based on the professional version ALCES Online, used in both government and industry, uses cutting edge GIS mapping technology and the latest research by leading scientist to enable users to jump back to an earlier Alberta and then travel ahead to where we may be going based on current land-use trends and activities. This unique planning tool lets users design a plan for the future, then test it to see what kind of a future we’ll actually see!

The simulation tool exposes students to real life decisions and tradeoffs, while building environmentally mindful citizens of the future. Your support will help us maintain and improve the Alberta Tomorrow simulator, as well as create new modules and lessons plans to further educate Alberta's students.

In the coming years we aim to reach 250 000+ students!

Understanding our past is key to planning for our future. For too long, information about Indigenous history has been either minimal or left out of our school curriculums. In conjunction with exploring the relationship our activities have with the land, we want to develop an Indigenous Module for Alberta Tomorrow's simulator tool.

This module would explore the relationship of Indigenous Peoples with the land including map overlays showing the traditional Indigenous territory names, distribution of people before and after treaties were signed and the reservation system was put into place, and interviews with Elders on significant places and/or landscapes within Alberta. Through the module, users would be introduced to Traditional Ecological Knowledge.

Lesson plans will be designed to guide students and teachers through the module as well as linking the Indigenous learning content to the rest of the Alberta Tomorrow simulation tool.

Module Features: 

• Interviews with Elders

• Map overlay with Indigenous territory names

• Map overlay showing distribution of Indigenous people before and after treaties and reservations