The power of the coast

The Atlantic coast brought Daniel Bryce to Halifax, and it’s why he wants to stay.

Daniel’s choice of universities for his Master of Planning degree was based on just two criteria.

“I was looking for a planning program that focused on practical project work versus a thesis,” he says, “and it had to be near the ocean.” Luckily, Dalhousie offered both.

Daniel grew up in Abbotsford, B.C., and completed his undergraduate degree at the University of the Fraser Valley in Geography and History with a certificate in Geographic Information Systems. But coastal planning is his passion.

“The coast is the most dynamic, ever-changing, biophysical landscape,” he says. “It’s where much of the world’s population lives and where many of the world’s major cities lie. These aspects make it important to manage and plan, especially in the face of climate change.”

Daniel originally envisioned becoming an architect but after work experience in East Africa and his undergraduate planning courses he found that studying planning merged what he loved about architecture with geography. “The best way to make people’s lives better is creating an environment they can engage with,” he says. “One of the best ways to do that is through spatial planning.”

For most of his master’s degree Daniel worked at CBCL Limited, a local engineering firm, as a planning assistant. In February, he became the coastal GIS coordinator for the Nova Scotia Department of Fisheries and Agriculture. He also received the GIS scholarship from ESRI Canada, which has allowed him to gain access to mapping software for a study of how Nova Scotia’s coastal populations are vulnerable to climate change.

He has been inspired and supported by both his professors and classmates at Dalhousie. “With my peers, we’ve all been co-inspired because we come from diverse backgrounds and bring diverse viewpoints to the program.”

This article is part of our series of profiles on the graduates of the Class of 2015. These profiles are also published in the Convocation Keepsake which is distributed at Convocation ceremonies. For more information (including live webcasts), visit the Convocation website.