I led this project, which gave an overview of how Hamilton provides public access to its many waterfalls... especially in light of exponentially-increased human demand and its sensitive environmental features.
It started with a webinar presentation to the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects (OALA) membership on April 14th, 2021, before publishing an article on the same theme in the Summer 2022 edition of its quarterly publication, Ground Magazine.
(graphics by me unless otherwise shown)
slides from my portion:
Webster's Falls (~23m high) along the Niagara Escarpment in Dundas/Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Dundas Peak geology as example of 'standard' escarpment composition through Hamilton. The escarpment face rises 100m in places.
context map (base data from City of Hamilton)
exponential increase in public demand at Hamilton's waterfall sites happened during the pandemic, much occurring off-the-beaten path
these particular falls are urban runoff.... not that you'd know that from the many guns-out social posts from under them
it's not just the water that's a danger, though. not to mention all of the ecological disturbance caused by increased foot traffic
so in efforts to mitigate ecological and human risk, the city looks at a necessarily-gruelling project-delivery process:
see links below in "additional resources.' ESAIG is an oversight committee of citizen specialists: Environmentally Sensitive Areas Impact Group
