Below I share some of the work going on in the geo-spatial world at the Hakai Institute. Some of the posts are for testing products for future development and some are to highlight early findings from the field. The main goal of the mapping team is to assist and enhance spatial knowledge for long term research programs at the Hakai Institute.
If you are looking for some of our finished mapping products or data click here.
If you have any questions please contact me at keith.holmes@hakai.org.
Our latest paper: winter storms cause reoxygenation in fjords
Thursday, October 12, 2023 at 10:17AM Arctic outflow winds bring cold air from the continent to the coastline through mountain passes. Using observational data and a 2-D model, we show that a February 2019 outflow event caused the upper 100 m in Bute Inlet, British Columbia (within the traditional territory of the Homalco Nation) to cool up to 1.9°C and gain up to 4.1 mLL−1 of oxygen. The cold, oxygenated water persisted for almost 1 year within the 1,023–1,023.5 kgm−3 isopycnal range (∼50–150 m). Atmospheric (from 1929 to 2022) and oceanographic (from 1951 to 2022) data showed a statistically significant relationship between continental air temperature at Tatlayoko Lake and temperature and oxygen in Bute Inlet. This local mechanism that counters some effects of climate change could create a biological refugium as surrounding waters warm and lose oxygen at a faster rate. The number of outflow events decreased from 1951 to 2018, and increased since.
Hakai Institute Research
Thursday, March 24, 2016 at 3:23PM 
UAV Imagery Capture and Processing Methodology
Monday, September 7, 2015 at 9:16AM Below is the basic process we have been using to fly and process UAV imagery. 1) Set up control points using a DGPS. These can be targets placed out before flight or opportunistic points which can be gathered before or after the flight. Control points are distributed throughout the entire site and x y accuracy is roughly 2-15 cm depending on soaking time and conditions in the field. 2) Fly the UAV in a grid pattern to cover the study area with ~ 80-90% overlap in imagery. Maximum area covered in one flight is roughly 1.5 km x 1.5 km at 300 meter flight elevation. 3) Take the imagery back to the lab and process it. A number of programs are used such as Adobe Lightroom to reduce image distortion and Autostitch to mosaic the images together. 4) Find the DGPS control points in the imagery and 5) georeference to the DGPS points gathered in the field – transformation type may need to be assessed per image basis, but spline has been the most successful so far. 6) A complete georeferenced orthophoto is complete and ready for use in ecosystem mapping, object based image classification, or overlaid with your field data points as a basemap.
Basic timetable breakdown for each step for a single flight (1.5 km x 1.5 km swath):
1) Field control points ~ 1 hour
2) Flight ~ 20 minutes
3) Processing ~ 3 hours
4&5) Georeferencing ~ 1 hour