M.Sc.
Jessica O’Donnell is a geographer specializing in GIS and remote sensing at JDMA. Jessica holds a graduate degree in Geography from the University of Regina, where she studied the effects of climate change on vegetation patterns in the shortgrass prairie in Grasslands National Park in southwestern Saskatchewan. Her past academic research has also included using remote sensing and GIS analysis techniques to map and monitor changes in vegetation in northern boreal and southern shortgrass prairie ecosystems in Saskatchewan.
Jessica is an experienced researcher and field worker with a strong background in both GIS and digital remote sensing. She is a skilled geospatial analyst proficient in several GIS and remote sensing software applications. Jessica is also an experienced lecturer, having taught several courses in introductory GIS and data analysis at both the University of Regina and the National Summer Institute.
Jessica has been involved with multiple major projects since joining JDMA in 2007, including several routing studies for all-weather roads in northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba and mapping of present and historic shorelines on lakes in northern Manitoba. Recently, she has been working as part of a multi-disciplinary team on over two dozen route location, evaluation and field studies for various major high-voltage AC transmission lines for SaskPower. Jessica’s role in these projects includes preliminary and final route location and assessment studies, issues identification and environmental screening, public consultations and stakeholder feedback, and assisting with environmental impact studies and regulatory approval submissions.