Vancouver  is a coastal city and major seaport located in the Lower Mainland of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. The city is bounded by English Bay, Burrard Inlet, the Fraser River, the city of Burnaby, and the University Endowment Lands. Vancouver is named after Captain George Vancouver, a British explorer. The name Vancouver itself originates from the Dutch "van Coevorden", denoting somebody from (in Dutch: "van") Coevorden, an old city in The Netherlands.
According to the 2006 Census, the city of Vancouver had a population of 578,041 and its Census Metropolitan Area 2,116,581. As of July 2009, the city's estimated population was 615,473 and that of the metropolitan area, 2,318,200. Vancouver is the largest metropolitan area in Western Canada and the third largest in the country, although as a municipality it is ranked eighth nationally. Vancouver is ethnically diverse, with 52% of city residents having a first language other than English.
Vancouver was first settled by Europeans in the 1860s as a result of immigration to the Colony of British Columbia caused by the Fraser and Cariboo Gold Rushes, though only a very few settled in what would become the city of Vancouver. The city's roots are based in logging and the founding of a large lumber mill, which gave birth to Gastown. The settlement expanded rapidly in the 1880s into a metropolitan centre following the arrival of the transcontinental railway in 1887. The Port of Vancouver became internationally significant as a node in the global trade network of the British Empire with the combined steamship and railway of the Canadian Pacific Railway shortening shipping times from the Orient to London. The port is now the busiest in Canada, and the fourth largest port (by tonnage) in North America.
Prior to the 1980s, the economy of Vancouver had traditionally relied on British Columbia's resource sectors: forestry, mining, fishing and agriculture. It has diversified over the past 30 years, however. Today its second largest industry, after forestry, is tourism, and it has become the third-largest film production centre in North America after Los Angeles and New York City, earning it the nickname Hollywood North.
Vancouver ranks as one of the most livable cities in the world, and has done so for more than a decade.. It is a destination for many international conferences and events, including the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements in 1976 and the 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication (Expo 86). The 2010 Winter Olympics and 2010 Winter Paralympics will be held in Vancouver and nearby Whistler, a mountain town 125 km north of the city.


Geography
Further information: Bodies of water in Vancouver, Climate of Vancouver, and Lower Mainland Ecoregion
Located on the Burrard Peninsula, Vancouver lies between Burrard Inlet to the north and the Fraser River to the south. The Strait of Georgia, to the west, is shielded from the Pacific Ocean by Vancouver Island. The city has an area of 114 square kilometres (44 sq mi), including both flat and hilly ground, and is in the Pacific Time Zone (UTC−8) and the Pacific Maritime Ecozone. Until the city's naming in 1885, "Vancouver" referred to Vancouver Island, and it remains a common misconception that the city is located on the island. While the island and the city are named after Royal Navy Captain George Vancouver, the city of Vancouver, Washington, on the north bank of the Columbia River opposite Portland, Oregon, is only indirectly named for Captain Vancouver. That city’s name was adapted from Fort Vancouver, which had been the headquarters of the Columbia District of the Hudson's Bay Company and the largest settlement in the Pacific Northwest until the Oregon Treaty of 1846.

The original vegetation of most of Vancouver and the surrounding area was dense temperate rain forest, consisting of conifers with scattered pockets of maple and alder, and large areas of swampland (even in upland areas, due to poor drainage). The conifers were a typical coastal British Columbia mix of Douglas-fir, Western red cedar and Western Hemlock. The area is thought to have the largest of these trees on the entire British Columbia Coast. Only in Seattle's Elliott Bay did the size of trees rival those of Burrard Inlet and English Bay. The largest trees in Vancouver's old-growth forest were in the Gastown area, where the first logging occurred, and on the south slopes of False Creek and English Bay, especially around Jericho Beach. The forest in Stanley Park was logged between the 1860s and 1880s, and evidence of old-fashioned logging techniques such as springboard notches can still be seen there.

Many plants and trees growing throughout Vancouver and the Lower Mainland have been imported from other parts of the continent and from points across the Pacific. Various species of palm trees grow in the city, as do large numbers of other exotic trees such as the monkey puzzle tree, the Japanese Maple, and various flowering exotics, such as magnolias, azaleas, and rhododendrons. Some rhododendrons have grown to immense sizes, as have other species imported from harsher climates in Eastern Canada or Europe. The native Douglas Maple can also attain a tremendous size. Many of the city's streets are lined with flowering varieties of Japanese cherry trees donated by the government of Japan, beginning in the 1930s. These flower for several weeks from early spring each year. Other streets are lined in flowering chestnut, horse chestnut and other decorative shade trees.
Vancouver is renowned for its scenery and has one of the largest urban parks in North America, Stanley Park. The North Shore Mountains dominate the cityscape, and on a clear day scenic vistas include the snow-capped volcano Mount Baker in the State of Washington to the southeast, Vancouver Island across the Strait of Georgia to the west and southwest, and the Sunshine Coast to the northwest.

Urban planning
A notable aspect of Vancouver's cityscape is its density. Vancouver's approach to planning is unique among North American cities, and has contributed to the city's high rankings in livability (see "Quality of living," below). This success has led to an urban planning movement known as Vancouverism, characterized by high-rise residential and mixed-use development in urban centres, as an alternative to sprawl.
This approach originated in the late 1950s, when city planners began to encourage the building of high-rise residential towers in Vancouver's West End, subject to strict requirements for setbacks and open space to protect sightlines and preserve green space. The success of these dense, but livable, neighbourhoods led to the redevelopment of urban industrial sites, such as North False Creek and Coal Harbour, beginning in the mid-1980s. The result has been a compact urban core that has gained international recognition for its "high amenity and 'livable' development." Vancouver's population density on the downtown peninsula is 121 people per hectare (or 49 people per acre), according to the 2001 census. More recently, the city has been debating "ecodensity,"—ways in which "density, design, and land use can contribute to environmental sustainability, affordability, and livability."
One principle of Vancouverism involves protecting "view Corridors". Vancouver's "View Protection Guidelines" were approved in 1989 and amended in 1990, establishing height limits to protect views of the North Shore Mountains. This approach, while credited with preserving the city's scenic backdrop, has been criticised for lessening visual interest and failing to represent the city's contemporary image. In response, Council commissioned a "Skyline Study" in 1997 which concluded that Vancouver's skyline would benefit from the addition of a handful of buildings exceeding current height limits, to add visual interest to Vancouver's skyline.
The study found that opportunities for such buildings were restricted due to a limited number of large development sites in the downtown. Eight years later, five of the seven sites identified for higher buildings have been planned or developed. The tallest of the new buildings is the Living Shangri-La hotel/residential tower, which was completed in 2008, and stands 201 metres (659 ft) tall (62 storeys).