Colby McDonald

Areas of interest

“Structural Controls on Coastal Cave Formation and Predictive GIS Modelling of Culturally Sensitive Archaeological Sites in Ehattesaht Territory, Vancouver Island”

“Coastal sea caves within Ehattesaht First Nation territory contain culturally sensitive materials and remain vulnerable to negative impacts from resource extraction, land-use activities, and looting due to a lack of systematic spatial mapping and formal archaeological documentation. These caves developed where wave action eroded the damage zones of regional conjugate fault sets, before being elevated above modern sea level by post-glacial uplift. This project will conduct a detailed structural analysis of the area to determine the relationship between structural controls and cave geometry, establishing a constrained predictive model to locate currently unidentified cave sites in support of their documentation and protection under the Heritage Conservation Act.”