Our GANS Social Spotlight continues, showcasing the people shaping Nova Scotia’s geomatics community.

Interested in being featured? Visit: https://gans.ca/GANS-social-spotlight
(Keep in mind, you don’t need to be a GANS member!)

This week’s spotlight features Marie-Ève Côté, Forest Resource Worker (Summer Student) at the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources.

Q: How do you use geomatics within your career?
I have used ArcGIS in a variety of ways, including infield data collection, remote location planning and land assessments.

Q: What is the weirdest or most interesting thing that you have mapped?
The weirdest / most random thing I have mapped was for a GIS class in university. For a various different exercise, we mapped diseased dogs in Brazil, based on different criteria like spatial distribution, dog names and vaccination status. It was very interesting to see the different way the data could be display using these factors. I also mapped the spatial distribution of gas stations in Alberta for a project, that was very cool.

Q: What has been your favourite project to work on?
For my undergraduate honours thesis titled: “Kejimkujik’s Fire Disturbance History and Suggested Management Plan Through the Lens of Dendrochronology”, I used a combination of ArcGIS and Field Maps to map my data collection sites within the National Park. I used satellite imagery, park boundaries and forest inventory layers to determine where I needed to go to collect the data I was looking for. In this case, I was searching for white pine, red spruce and/or eastern hemlock stands in locations that had and hadn’t experienced fires in order to determine the differential growth rates between the species. This data would then be used to identify which species retained fire history the best! It turned out to be red spruce. Feel free to find my thesis on Saint Mary’s website to read more about my research: https://library2.smu.ca/handle/01/33274