December | 2021 | Steve Schwarz Photography

Starting January 10th, 2022 – A New Career. It is career number …Navy, Geologist, Mineral Development Advisor, Remote Sensing Analyst and and soon – Lands Specialist.

As I write this – Three days to go. It has been a run of 20 years. Bitter sweet to be leaving, especially after the release of the Long Term Change Detection (LTCD) dataset, development of the LTCD User Guide and doing a CBC radio interview. Leaving on a good note, and it is time to move on. The commute will be to the other side of the building, new colleagues, and a completely new job.
Thinking back of the projects I have worked on since 2002. A ton of writing computer code and data processing, creating seamless mosaics of topographic data for all of NWT, forest fire burn severity, identifying and counting caribou and bison using satellite images, flood map predictive models, PM for collection of air photos over proposed Mackenzie Gas project and Mackenzie Delta, mapping coastal erosion at Cape Bathurst (360m in 38 years), and the highlight – the LTCD project for developing scripts to process 40 years of satellite data using Google Earth Engine.
Over the years technology and computer systems evolved from needing high end desktop computer, specialized remote sensing software and having to download satellite data (100’s of Gb per day) to cloud enabled computing – I can run the scripts and process satellite imagery using my phone !. My Thanks to the many colleagues, and my classmates at COGS (2000-2001).

Mapping Coastal Erosion at Cape Bathurst, NWT.

Mapping coastal erosion – the Old way. Converting the raster (satellite picture into a line layer). 1972 coastline in red, satellite picture (blue outline) from 2010.

Schematic of the changes in the coastline at Cape Bathurst, years and coastline shown.

Coastal erosion shown in blue using the LTCD script. Takes 20 minutes to run – instead of 3 days of eyeball strain !.

Counting wildlife using a satellite image. Satellite is in orbit approx 800km above earth.

Wildfire Burn Severity mapping:

2014 Wildfires in NWT.

Wildfire Burn Severity analysis.

Mackenzie Gas Pipeline Airphoto Project:

Wrote specifications and contract managed for 1;30,000 scale airphotos covering Mackenzie gas Pipeline route (pipeline yet to be built) and Mackenzie Delta,and creating of 1 meter contours and digital elevation model (DEM).

1:30,000 scale airphoto tile.

Area covered by MVAP tiles, contours and DEM (extends down Mackenzie Valley).

Long Term Change Detection (LTCD):

Long Term Change Detection – User Guide.

LTCD User Guide. Description of colours for wildfires.

LTCD User Guide. Sample images of slope movement.

Read more about the User Guide and ESRI ‘App’ of the Month, and CBC Weekender radio interview here:

https://www.geomatics.gov.nt.ca/en/newsroom/long-term-change-detection-wins-esri-canadas-app-month-december-2021

There goes another one…

Rare 5 speed Manual and E-locker 1997 Toyota 4Runner SR5.

Bought it in May 2020 – sight unseen in Calgary. Because of Covoid, didn’t get to it until August 2020. By then, it had been picked up and moved to a new location outside of town. Did a few repairs and drove it back to Yellowknife.

Definitely fun as heck to drive. Short shift 5 speed transmission, and straight piped (no muffler – straight pipe exhaust). Great sound from the engine. It also had a forward tilt, slightly nose down. Two inch lift and 17″ tires, and a crazy blinking light pole at the rear. Like any used vehicle, it had its share of surprises. In retrospect I should have known. It had a rebuilt engine installed. Last winter i had a heck of a time starting it. It had an electric battery blanket and cord for the engine block heater. Cord….I assumed it was plugged in. But i discovered a week later that the cord wasn’t actually plugged in – it was left over from the previous engine !. New engine didn’t have a block heater.!.

The power windows didn’t work, and still don’t. Checked the fuses, and same circuit as the sunroof – and that works !. Power locks work, except from drivers door. I opened up the side console and checked the controller. It was dirty, worn out and sooty. Cleaned it, and figured it was the problem – Not !. Broken wire somewhere?.

I replaced the brakes. All new parts; pads, rotors, calipers and drums, and the entire parking brake system (removed by previous owner) – Wow. That was a bit of work, and so much better !.

Also did a bunch of smaller jobs; sway bar (removed by previous owner), end links, replaced all the fluids, and fluid film on rusty bits. The truck came with a cargo rack, that was replaced with a DIY roof rack for canoes and roof top tent. Never got around to doing body work – seemed as though every panel had a big dent.

The ARB bumper and 12,000 lb winch for a bit of use moving other vehicles around the yard – but not real use off road.

Of the original 5!! 4Runners in my fleet, this was number 4 (4-4). One remaining ;>