Literature Review
Coming soon…
Geomorphology - Landscape Analysis
A Hillslope Stability Analysis of the Yellowstone Club
For this project, my team and I investigated hillslope stability at the Yellowstone Club, a private ski and golf resort in Big Sky, Montana. Using a 10-meter resolution digital elevation model from the USGS, we built a series of GIS-based terrain analysis maps in ArcGIS Pro, including slope, hillshade, surface roughness, and topographic wetness index (TWI). We then overlaid historical landslide and debris flow data from the Montana Bureau of Mining and Geology to see exactly where past mass movements had occurred relative to the resort's current roads and homes.
Our analysis revealed that significant portions of the Yellowstone Club's infrastructure sit directly on top of historical landslide paths, meaning long-term risk wasn't fully accounted for during development. Terrain indicators like high surface roughness and elevated TWI values point to areas of active soil creep and water accumulation, particularly in the northeastern section of the property. While our Factor of Safety model ran into technical limitations with raster alignment, our suitability model successfully highlighted the highest-risk zones, painting a clear picture of a landscape that is slowly on the move.
Energy Development in Montana
As part of a collaborative geography and GIS course project, my class built an interactive map documenting the full landscape of renewable energy development across southeastern Montana. The map brings together wind farms, solar fields, hydropower facilities, and fossil fuels into a single, explorable interface. This gives users a bird's-eye view of how the region is being shaped by the ongoing energy transition.
A Complete Analysis of The Yellowtail Dam and Afterbay Project
In this research, I looked into the Yellowtail Dam and Afterbay on the Bighorn River. This was a massive federal water project built on the Crow Tribe's (Apsáalooke Nation) reservation in the 1960s. I explored the dam's role as a 250-megawatt hydropower facility, its benefits for flood control, irrigation, and world-class trout fishing, and the deep tensions surrounding who actually profits from those benefits.
Drawing from academic sources, federal agency reports, and original interviews with tribal community members and project leaders, I examined how decades of federal negotiation left the Crow Tribe with little compensation from a river they legally own.
A central focus of the paper is the Crow Tribe's ongoing effort to build their own small hydropower facility at the lower Afterbay. This would be a tribally led project that would finally keep energy revenue on the reservation, create stable local jobs, and give the community direct control over a resource that has generated wealth for outsiders for over 60 years. The project represents far more than infrastructure, but a push toward economic self-sufficiency and a meaningful step away from federal dependency for a community that has been on the losing end of this river's story for generations.
Advanced GIS
