Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

Commercially available technology for drone--based environmental sensing has rapidly evolved in recent years, enabling collection of high--precision data from the surface and shallow subsurface. The applicants request a package that includes two drone--mounted sensors (for ground penetrating radar and bathymetry) and one drone to support the new sensors and with the payload capacity to transport a previously purchased geophysical sensor. The technology will be used to characterize hydrological processes in research sites ranging from the Canadian Arctic to the Canadian Maritimes, including small, vulnerable communities in the Northwest Territories, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. Research at these sites is focused on the impacts of climate change on hydrologic and hydrogeologic systems, including the effects of sea--level rise, ice melt, permafrost thaw, and precipitation changes on streams, rivers, lakes, and aquifers. The drone--based mapping will be used to collect data to better understand hydrologic processes and controls at these sites and to form the input data for models. Specifically the technology will be used to map water table depth, depth to permafrost, soil thickness, surface water and groundwater salinity, and bathymetry of coastal waters, rivers, and lakes. The new data and associated models will be applied to project the impacts of future climate change on these hydrologic environments. Also, the impacts of extreme storms will be investigated, as drones allow researchers to capture a distributed assessment of conditions before and after events. The research will have value to Canada by increasing our capacity to measure hydrologic conditions and understand and adapt to the impacts of climate change on northern and coastal environments. We estimate that at least 25 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows will be trained in the operation of this equipment, which will be transformative for their individual research projects and careers. Operating drones and processing associated data are increasingly desired skillsets in water resources engineering and environmental geoscience, and students trained with these equipment will be highly sought after in government, industry, and academia.