Facilities¶

A facility is a specific, physical feature represented by a geographic point, polyline, or polygon. Facilities describe real‑world infrastructure or natural features that visitors interact with directly. They typically include man-made structures such as: parking lots, campgrounds, trailheads, buildings, and viewpoints, but they may also represent natural features such as lakes, beaches or mountains when those features are meaningful to the user experience.

A single facility may support zero, one, or many activities, and users may require permission to visit, stay at, or otherwise use certain facilities.

Facilities provide parental groupings for assets, which are the smallest spatial elements in the system.

Although facilities may resemble legacy BC Parks concepts, they are a distinct datatype within this data model and are not derived from any preexisting structure.

Relationship to Geozones¶

Facilities and geozones are both spatial concepts, but they serve different purposes: - Facilities represent physical objects or specific locations. - Geozones represent conceptual regions that group multiple facilities, activities, or features.

Even when a facility uses a polygon to describe its footprint, it remains a physical feature, not a regional grouping. This distinction keeps the spatial model clear, scalable, and easy to reason about.

Like geozones, facilities can be: - system‑defined (BC Parks infrastructure) - user‑defined (personal points or areas of interest)

Because facilities may belong to different audiences, they are grouped using collectionIds. - A facility in Strathcona Park (ORCS 1) → facility::bcparks_1

Properties¶

Note: The facility configuration file is the authoritative source for the current schema.

Property	Type	Description
`pk`	String	Partition key for the item. Always begins with `facility::<collectionId>`. Groups all facilities within a collection.
`sk`	String	Sort key uniquely identifying the item within the partition. Typically a combination of `facilityType` and `identifier`
`schema`	String	Item datatype/schema. Will always be 'facility' for facilities
`globalId`	String	UUID used for GSIs and cross‑collection lookups.
`collectionId`	String	Identifier linking the facility to its operational collection (e.g., `bcparks_1`).
`facility`	Number	Identifier uniquely distinguishing this particular facility from other facilities of the same type within the same collection
`identifier`	Number	See `facilityId`
`facilityType`	String	The type of facility the item represents. Some examples include "campground", "accessPoint", and "naturalFeature"
`facilitySubType`	String	If needed, a further categorization of the `facilityType`. Some examples of a "naturalFeature" might include a "lake", "summit" or "waterfall"
`displayName`	String	Human‑readable name of the item.
`description`	String	Optional descriptive text explaining the purpose or operational meaning of the item.
`envelope`	OSGeo	Bounding box containing 2D spatial geometry, if it exists.
`boundary`	OSGeo	Spatial footprint geometry, if it exists and small enough to be stored in DynamoDB.
`boundaryUrl`	String	Spatial footprint geometry, if it exists. Stored in S3 with a reference URL.
`location`	OSGeo	Geospatial point serving as the location of the facility, used for search relevance, sorting, clustering, and map pin placement
`path`	OSGeo	Spatial polyline geometry, if it exists and small enough to be stored in DynamoDB. Usually will refer to a trail or road.
`pathUrl`	String	Spatial polyline geometry, if it exists. Stored in S3 with a reference URL.
`minMapZoom`	Number	The smallest zoom level (furthest zoomed out) at which the object will render on a map if it is not in focus
`maxMapZoom`	Number	The largest zoom level (furthest zoomed in) at which the object will render on a map if it is not in focus
`imageUrls`	[String]	Array of urls of images of this data item
`timezone`	String	The IANA string timezone of the spatial data item
`isVisible`	Boolean	Whether or not this item will be returned if it generates a search hit
`creationDate`	DateTime	Timestamp of when the item was first created
`lastUpdated`	DateTime	Timestamp of when the item was last updated
`version`	Number	Data revision number
`searchTerms`	String	Comma-separated list of terms OpenSearch can use to link text searches to this data item
`adminNotes`	String	Administrative notes to describe the data, will never be surfaced to the public

Examples¶

Bedwell Lake Campground¶

{
  "pk": "facility::bcparks_1",
  "sk": "campground::1",
  "schema": "facility",
  "globalId": "23ertrg4-t54e-tyhr-ghnj-rer4323e543t",
  "collectionId": "bcparks_1",
  "facilityType": "campground",
  "facilitySubType": "",
  "facilityId": 1,
  "identifier": 1,
  "displayName": "Bedwell Lake Campground",
  "description": "Main Bedwell Lake campground on the edge of pristine Bedwell Lake. There are ### tentpads at this campground",
  "envelope": {
    "type": "envelope",
    "coordinates": [
      [-125.61, 49.51],
      [-125.60, 49.50]
    ]
  },
  "boundaryUrl": "s3://...",
  "location": {
    "type": "point",
    "coordinates": [
      -125.592,
      49.490
    ]
  },
  "path": {},
  "minMapZoom": 9,
  "maxMapZoom": 19,
  "imageUrls": [
    "https://...",
    "https://..."
  ],
  "timezone": "America/Vancouver",
  "isVisible": true,
  "creationDate": "2026-01-06T15:30:00.000Z",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-01-06T15:30:00.000Z",
  "version": 1,
  "searchTerms": "bedwell lake, baby bedwell lake, strathcona park...",
  "adminNotes": ""
}

Juan de Fuca Trail¶

{
  "pk": "facility::bcparks_9398",
  "sk": "trailSegment::1",
  "schema": "facility",
  "globalId": "2342fg4-r4rr-asf4-ytrt-rt345ertae543t",
  "collectionId": "bcparks_1",
  "facilityType": "trailSegment",
  "facilitySubType": "",
  "facilityId": 1,
  "identifier": 1,
  "displayName": "Juan de Fuca Trail",
  "description": "Coastal Trail on southwest Vancouver Island spanning from China Beach to Botanical Beach",
  "envelope": {
    "type": "envelope",
    "coordinates": [
      [
        -125.61,
        49.51
      ],
      [
        -125.60,
        49.50
      ]
    ]
  },
  "boundaryUrl": "s3://...",
  "location": {
    "type": "point",
    "coordinates": [
      -124.093,
      48.438
    ]
  },
  "path": {
    "type": "polyline",
    "coordinates": [
      [
        -124.093,
        48.438
      ],
      [
        -124.092,
        48.437
      ],
      [
        -124.091,
        48.436
      ]
    ]
  },
  "minMapZoom": 5,
  "maxMapZoom": 20,
  "imageUrls": [
    "https://...",
    "https://..."
  ],
  "timezone": "America/Vancouver",
  "isVisible": true,
  "creationDate": "2026-01-06T15:30:00.000Z",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-01-06T15:30:00.000Z",
  "version": 1,
  "searchTerms": "juan de fuca, china beach, chin beach, bear beach, sombrio beach, botanical beach, payzant...",
  "adminNotes": ""
}