Evan Fortushniok
Research Assistant
I am currently an MSc candidate in the department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, approaching my second year in September 2020. I am working with Dr. Mary-Louise Byrne on a coastal restoration project regarding the Northwest Beaches of Point Pelee National Park, Ontario, Canada. The objective of my research is to gain an understanding of the impacts that the historical anthropogenic influences have had on the naturally occurring dune sequences in the park. This includes evaluating the interactions between local and invasive ecology within the beaches, and offering restoration technique recommendations to the parks department for returning the Northwest Beaches to its natural landscape. I am additionally working with Laurier’s ReSEC lab as a research assistant, exploring the capabilities that NASA’s ABoVe project imagery offers towards research in Canada’s Northwest Territories freshwater systems. This work has greatly improved my comprehension of working with remotely sensed multispectral imagery within a variety of GIS software and troubleshooting techniques when working with AVIRIS data.