Day 16: Eureka

All week I’ve been a little worried about coming up with my project idea, but today I’ve finally finalized my initial project idea. It is locating areas of ancient native Hawaiian fishing practices by using geographic information systems and remote sensing software. It is good to finally have a good sense as to what I will be doing in the upcoming days. I also think it’ll be a fun project overall to do. It will definitely be a good application of GIS and remote sensing in a non-conventional way (at least to me).

Tomorrow I’d like to work on putting together my data and start processing it, but I’m not sure as to what the plan is for the entire group. But I look forward to “ground truthing” my data to see if I can predict where I can find ancient Hawaiian fishing artifacts in reef areas. Nothing like snorkeling all day for research! That reminds me that I also have to try to find a snorkeling mask that can go over my glasses, I’m sure there is something out there on eBay or Amazon (not to promote them or anything).

Overall, I think my time here at Ka’a’awa Vally and Tradewinds Ranch had been a blast! I’m especially enjoying being able to talk with other students, assistants, and professors as it always leads to some really interesting conversations and ideas. I feel like by the end of this program we’ll accomplish about a semester’s worth of learning and course work.