UNews - Canadian Remote Sensing Society

U of L to host 2020 Canadian Symposium on Remote Sensing in Yellowknife

trevor.kenney — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 20:36:14 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, along with Wilfrid Laurier ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, is gearing up to host the 2020 Canadian Symposium on Remote Sensing at a unique off-campus location — The Explorer Hotel in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

The five-day conference, July 13-17, 2020, brings together the country’s foremost experts in remote sensing with this year’s focus on the increasing rate of change in today’s environment. Titled, Landscapes of Change; Remote Sensing for a Sustainable Future, the conference will showcase a wide range of technical, applied and natural sciences topics relevant to the remote sensing community. The group will also host special sessions and workshop discussion dedicated to remote sensing of environmental change and, more critically, how remote sensing-based knowledge can help pave the way for solutions at community to global scales.

It is the first time the conference is being held in the Northwest Territories and Dr. Chris Hopkinson, Chair in Terrestrial Ecosystem Remote Sensing and a member of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s Department of Geography is one of the lead organizers. He says the location will offer some unique opportunities for attending delegates.

“We felt it was appropriate to host our national meeting in Canada’s North, as the remote nature of these vast landscapes means satellite and airborne monitoring are the most effective ways to monitor the widespread ground-level impacts of climate change,” says Hopkinson. “The symposium will host all the typical themes relevant to our national community but given climate and land surface changes are most severe in the North, we will host special sessions and workshops dedicated to these topics.”

The conference program, although not yet finalized, will feature a host of educational workshops and daily keynote presentations on a range of local, regional and nationally significant topics in the field of remote sensing and change. There will also be ample opportunity for delegates to attend informal social and student networking events.

“The symposium is a great networking opportunity for senior and junior remote sensing professionals and students,” adds Hopkinson. “A unique element of this year’s meeting is how we plan to engage communities to understand their needs and explore opportunities for remote sensing-based solutions.”

For more information on the event, visit the conference website at https://crss-sct.ca/conferences/csrs-2020/

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge geography/ATIC researchers receive multiple awards at national remote sensing conference

trevor.kenney — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 17:35:47 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge was front and centre at the 36th Annual Canadian Remote Sensing Society’s (CRSS-SCT) national symposium held recently in St. John’s Nfld.

Three U of L faculty members from the Department of Geography earned awards at the symposium, while a number of presentations from ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge students, post-doctoral fellows and professors showcased the outstanding work being conducted on campus, furthering the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s reputation as a national leader in the field of remote sensing.

“It is always wonderful to see our colleagues be recognized like this on the national and international stage. It brings further profile to the Alberta Terrestrial Imaging Centre (ATIC) and the Department of Geography from which the three award recipients are affiliated," says Dr. Derek Peddle, professor of geography and co-director of ATIC.

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ adjunct professor of geography Dr. Ron Hall (Canadian Forest Service, NRCan - Edmonton) earned recognition as the 2015 winner of the Val Shaw Memorial Award for his exceptional contribution in the use of remote sensing for natural resources management.

Over his career, Hall has made significant contributions to the use of aerial and satellite optical and LiDAR remote sensing in mapping and monitoring forest defoliation, harvesting and fire disturbances, vegetation inventory and biomass estimation as well as to the EOSD land cover classification project. He has also made significant contributions to training students.

The Val Shaw Memorial Award was established in 1990 in memory of Valerie Shaw, an executive with the Bercha Group and a strong proponent of remote sensing in Canada. The award consists of a certificate that recognizes lifelong achievement in practical remote sensing applied to natural resource management.

The U of L’s Dr. Laura Chasmer also received a major award. An adjunct professor in geography and an Alberta Innovates Research Fellow in Dr. Chris Hopkinson’s Artemis lab, Chasmer earned the 2015 CRSS-SCT Bronze Medal for her outstanding research productivity and early-career achievements.

The CRSS-SCT Bronze Medal Award was established in 2009 as an early-career achievement award to recognize emerging excellence in remote sensing in Canada.

Chasmer is a highly productive scientist integrating LiDAR and passive optical remote sensing in multiple research areas that include climatology, meteorology, ecosystem change, hydrology, northern studies and forest attribute estimation. To date, she has over 30 peer-reviewed publications in international journals, more than 75 conference proceedings papers and presentations, and has served on nine graduate student committees.

The third major honour involving the U of L went to Dr. Ravinder Virk, an instructor in the Department of Geography, who teamed with Carleton ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s Scott Mitchell to produce the second best paper in the Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing Best Paper Awards category. Their paper was entitled, “Effect of different grazing intensities on the spatial-temporal variability in above-ground live plant biomass in North American mixed grasslands".

The four-day conference also featured a number of special sessions, oral and poster presentations, a leadership forum, exhibitors, a feature session on the job market in remote sensing as well as a full-day summer school for students, and keynote addresses from Nalcor, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Urthecast, and NASA. The U of L presented in a number of these sessions and was prominent throughout the symposium.

A special issue of the Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing will be published in relationship to the symposium. The 37th Canadian Symposium on Remote Sensing will be held June 7-9, 2016 in Winnipeg.

For more information about ATIC and the Canadian Remote Sensing Society (including the above awards), visit the ATIC and CRSS-SCT websites respectively.

Staenz receives remote sensing award

trevor.kenney — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 15:51:24 +0000

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge professor of geography, Dr. Karl Staenz, has been awarded the prestigious 2010 Gold Medal from the Canadian Remote Sensing Society (CRSS).

This award recognizes a significant long-term contribution to the field of remote sensing in Canada, and is the highest award in the country granted by the Society for Excellence in Remote Sensing.

Staenz's research is focused on spectral sensing, including the process of image data preprocessing, information extraction for various applications and building intelligent image processing and monitoring systems.

He worked at the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing in Ottawa for over 20 years before joining the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge in 2006. Staenz is also the science director of the Alberta Terrestrial Imaging Corporation (ATIC) in Lethbridge.

The gold medal was awarded to Staenz at the recently held 31st Canadian Symposium on Remote Sensing – the Prairie Summit – in Regina, Sask.

He joins fellow faculty member Dr. Philippe Teillet (physics and astronomy) as a gold medal winner. Teillet received the CRSS Gold Medal in 2006.

Remote sensing conference featuring exceptional speakers

trevor.kenney — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:32:13 +0000

Remote Sensing researchers who look at the earth from afar – sometimes outer space – are getting hands-on, ground level experiences from June 22-25 at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.

The U of L is the site for the 30th Canadian Symposium on Remote Sensing. Conference Chair, Canadian Remote Sensing Society (CRSS) President and U of L Geography Professor Dr. Derek Peddle says more than 200 researchers, industry representatives and students are attending from Canada, the U.S., Europe and elsewhere, including a delegation from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Canadian Space Agency, national award recipients and editors of the leading international remote sensing journals and publications.

"Remote sensing has many applications for agriculture, forestry, energy and urban planning. Examples include tracking forest fires, oil and gas industry mapping, assessing crop health, mountain pine beetle damage and other environmental challenges, such as floods and natural disasters," Peddle says. "It's important for everyone to meet with other scientists and applications specialists about this work."

Keynote speakers include high-ranking officials from the Alberta and Federal governments, the CSA and NASA, such as Dr. Diane Wickland from NASA Headquarters in Washington DC.

"We're doing new things – making a Conference with a Difference. They'll be accessible to all delegates, for informal interaction – this type of group and format has never been done before at any international symposia," says Peddle.

The conference is a team effort, and Peddle says the key players have put in countless months to make sure everything goes off as planned.

"For me, it started in May 2006. Heather Mirau and our Conference Services staff on campus have been outstanding, and my colleagues in geography, Dr. Craig Coburn and CRSS Executive member Dr. Anne Smith, a researcher at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Lethbridge, have really stepped up to make sure the program and other details are looked after. As well, local industry partners Ryan Johnson and staff at Iunctus Geomatics Corporation plus the Alberta Terrestrial Imaging Centre are highly involved, and are showcasing the technology we have in Lethbridge which makes remote sensing a great business success story for the region."

Remote sensing conference coming to U of L

trevor.kenney — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:05:11 +0000

UNews - Canadian Remote Sensing Society

U of L to host 2020 Canadian Symposium on Remote Sensing in Yellowknife

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��Ѹ�����Դ���߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge geography/ATIC researchers receive multiple awards at national remote sensing conference

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��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge geography/ATIC researchers receive multiple awards at national remote sensing conference