Factors influencing the creation of high-impact oil and gas geophysical seismic cutlines in an ecologically-sensitive landscape in northeastern British Columbia, Canada

Oil and gas (OG) resource extraction has adverse impacts on landscapes despite the socio-economic benefits that trickle down to society. Whereas many recent studies have focused on direct landscape change from OG activities, this study focuses on factors associated with the creation of high-impact OG seismic cutlines, geophysical survey paths that have widths of more than 5.5 m. Using geographic information systems and a spatially-explicit logistic regression framework, we model the relationship between high-impact seismic cutlines and associated explanatory variables (e.g., seismic cutline type, land ownership type, etc.) by drawing on political ecology perspectives. The study finds that mechanically-cut seismic cutlines are 514.34 times significantly more likely to be high-impact seismic cutlines as compared to hand-cut seismic cutlines. We find that seismic cutlines found on private land are 0.05 times significantly less likely to be high-impact type as compared to those found on crown (public) land. These findings suggest that societal land use decisions and preferences are likely to influence the creation of spaces for different levels of OG land user–environment interactions. Thus, land use managers are presented with unique land use challenges that require environmental management strategies for dealing with the impacts of OG activities on the environment.