{"id":17008,"date":"2025-05-21T08:02:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T12:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/?p=17008"},"modified":"2025-05-19T14:38:44","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T18:38:44","slug":"in-new-zealand-jack-breitowich-plots-sustainable-use-of-natural-resources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/2025\/05\/21\/in-new-zealand-jack-breitowich-plots-sustainable-use-of-natural-resources\/","title":{"rendered":"In New Zealand, Jack Breitowich Plots Sustainable Use of Natural Resources"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Jack Breitowich \u201922 is combining his love of the outdoors with an enthusiasm for geographic data collection to plot sustainable use of natural resources in New Zealand.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The complex geology of New Zealand not only makes the island nation a visual wonder, full of diverse landscapes, but also a country rich in natural resources, like minerals and verdant farmland. As a geospatial specialist with Williamson Water &amp; Land Advisory (WWLA) in Auckland, Jack Breitowich \u201922 is helping local industries assess both the impact they might have on the environment and how a changing environment could impact them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI consult with clients, like mine owners, land developers, and farmers, to help them utilize their natural resources as sustainably and effectively as possible,\u201d Breitowich explains. \u201cWhether that\u2019s understanding the groundwater in the area or looking at potential land contamination in an area of development, we are an objective, unbiased third party focused on the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most of the projects he works on involve gathering Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) imagery, a remote sensing method that uses a laser transmitter (like a drone or satellite) to scan a surface and gather measurements from the refracted light. The data collected is then processed and can be used to make high-resolution maps to assess both large-scale issues, like where water might flow based on contours of the land, and smaller-scale problems, like where runoff from roofs containing asbestos might contaminate soil after a heavy rain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition to remote sensing data, Breitowich and his colleagues also use aerial imagery, modeling and analysis software, and on-the-ground measurements, among other tools, to make plans that minimize a client\u2019s impact on the land and water around them, but also to analyze the potential for environmental changes that could impact their businesses in the future. For example, Breitowich recently worked on a project that used gauges to determine the flow rate of the streams running through a proposed mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe were standing in the water and putting those tools in to gain an accurate estimate of how fast the stream was running. And we do that at high flow postrain, during rain, and low flow during a dry period \u2014 as many conditions as possible,\u201d says Breitowich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He notes that field work was one of the things that drew him to his current position. \u201cThis mine in particular is right on the coast, so you get these beautiful cliffs and rugged coastline, and it\u2019s very isolated, so you don\u2019t feel like you\u2019re in a big city, you feel like you\u2019re actually out in New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Working in New Zealand \u2014 or even in land management \u2014 wasn\u2019t always on Breitowich\u2019s radar. In fact, when he arrived at Colgate in 2018, he wasn\u2019t sure what he wanted to study. But a chance encounter during an extracurricular activity helped him find a path forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAt the start of my sophomore year, I took a flying lesson at the Hamilton Municipal Airport and the flight instructor asked what classes I enjoyed,\u201d remembers Breitowich, who is now a licensed pilot both in the U.S. and New Zealand. \u201cWhen I mentioned geography, he told me Professor Peter Scull had just finished up his pilot license, so that afternoon I went straight to his office and started chatting with him. We had a great conversation, and he became my adviser.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A course in geographic information systems (GIS), taken remotely from Aruba during COVID-19 lockdowns, allowed Breitowich to combine his scuba diving hobby with tracking lionfish populations for a research project, further cementing his interests in geographic studies. And an independent study throughout the spring semester of his junior year took him to Tahiti to use GIS tools to map reefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before moving to yet another island \u2014 New Zealand \u2014 in 2024, Breitowich earned a master\u2019s degree from the University of Southern California in geospatial intelligence, a field that explores the use of tools like remote sensing to inform disaster management, military operations, and other activities on Earth from space. He hopes he can continue to marry his outside passions with career opportunities that help the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWorking for WWLA has been a great opportunity for me to explore New Zealand and work while doing it,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve done some really cool jobs gathering data, and learning about the geology and the physical geography of the country has been very interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The geospatial specialist is helping farmers and land developers minimize their impact on land and water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":17806,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2787,2785,2788,2790,2786,2789,2783,2784,2782,2791],"coauthors":[1965],"class_list":["post-17008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-discover","tag-environmental-impact-assessment","tag-geographic-data-collection","tag-geographic-information-systems","tag-geospatial-intelligence","tag-jack-breitowich","tag-lidar-imagery","tag-new-zealand-geology","tag-remote-sensing","tag-sustainable-use-of-natural-resources","tag-williamson-water-land-advisory"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/palXSH-4qk","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/05\/Jack-Breitowich.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17008"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17746,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17008\/revisions\/17746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17008"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=17008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}