Week 8 Blog Post: Final Fieldwork and Shifting Toward the Finish Line

This week marked a major turning point for my project. I traveled to Denver to complete my final field readings, gathering the last needed data from camera sites positioned across varied elevations and burn severity zones. After months of monitoring snow depth trends remotely, it was rewarding to see the landscapes firsthand and verify some of the conditions that might explain earlier anomalies in the data. I collected new measurements, logged observational notes, and ran preliminary checks to ensure that the data quality matched what I had previously gathered.

With all of the field data now in hand, I have started moving toward the final product phase of the project. My goal is to integrate all these snowpack readings into a predictive model that can work alongside existing dam and reservoir management systems. By predicting when reservoirs fed by snowmelt might run dry or overflow, my software tool could help hydroelectric plants and water managers make better-informed decisions about water releases and energy production schedules.

This week was about closing the loop between data collection and application—making the critical shift from observing the problem to actively working toward a solution. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be focused on finalizing the model architecture, validating its accuracy against historical trends, and preparing the final report that ties together everything this project has uncovered.