Discussion and Problems
Wind
The biggest problem with the wind distribution is that it ignores small scale effects. There are more factors at work than just topography because trees and buildings may alter the wind in a complex manner. The assumption that a single wind direction is the cause of the most powerfull gusts in the Vancouver area may work well in the five observed storms but still needs to be tested for a larger sample.
Precipitation and Temperature
These two day to day weather events seemed to have the least effect on the final map output. Unfortunately, because of there strong correlation to elevation they are also likely the most accurately represented factors in this project. Part of this reason they have a low effect is that they were set to weigh less because these factors have low overall significance.
Snow
High amounts of snow tend to cause havoc in Vancouver where people are not used to it and have to drive on steep hills. The 2001 land use data for residential areas is old and therefore limits the accuracy of the map that possible snow problems for residential areas along the North Shore.
Sea Level Rise
With steep fjord slopes on most of the coast British Columbia is largely protected from sea level rise. One of the exceptions is clearly the Fraser Delta which is barley above the ocean. While the exact values of rise are rough, the locations under the greatest risk is known precisely.
Fraser River Flood
In combination with the sea level rise in Richmond, the possibility of a flood dominates the distribution of ideal weather locations in metro Vancouver. The idea of using cost distances with elevation has the slight problem that up river areas will have a higher cost just because they are above sea level.
Project
Overall the greatest limitation to this project was likely the dependence of each of the different factors on elevation. The weather data collected was fairly comprehensive but still not at the scale where microclimates could be interpreted. As was discussed with the wind, there are many smaller scale processes at work that are beyond the scope of this project. However, the broad trends clearly lead to the conclusion that when considering the weather, the low lying areas of Richmond are the worst places to live and any sheltered locations are the best.