Measuring the snowpack — ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge partners with Alberta Environment and Protected Areas

caroline.zentner — Tue, 28 May 2024 15:49:09 +0000

With the threat of drought hanging over the province, the Government of Alberta enlisted a ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge research team to assist with accurately measuring the snowpack in southern Alberta and the variations from one watershed to another — measurements that are more important than ever as the province tries to manage its water resources.

“Given the potential for drought, following a couple of years of already dry conditions and low snowpack, the Government of Alberta approached us at the beginning of January to see if we could help them with the snow monitoring,” says Dr. Chris Hopkinson, professor in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Department of Geography and Environment and director of the new TECTERRA-funded Institute for Geospatial Inquiry, Instruction and Innovation (i4Geo).

For seven months of the year, scientists with Alberta Environment and Protected Areas (AEPA) go up into the mountains in the backcountry to measure snow depth and density, information critical to managing water and reservoir levels throughout Alberta.

While it’s practically impossible for workers to physically measure snow depth and density and take samples across whole watersheds, combining the measurements and samples from selected areas with data from airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), a remote sensing system that can map snow depth, can provide more accuracy.

Photo, taken April 21, 2024, shows the Upper Oldman River, fed by the mountains in the background, as it enters the Oldman Reservoir.

“Effectively responding to drought, both this year and in the future, requires a better understanding of snowpack conditions in the mountains and the amount of water we can expect during the spring melt to refill our reservoirs and recharge our rivers,” says Dr. Brandi Newton, a hydroclimatologist with AEPA. “Partnering with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge on the use of LiDAR in our snow survey program allows us to collect detailed snowpack data over a much wider area and will ultimately help Alberta make the most out of every drop.”

For the Bow and Oldman watersheds in southern Alberta, Hopkinson and his team began planning two airborne missions, one in March and one in April. For the March mission, Teledyne Optech provided a state-of-the-art Galaxy LiDAR system and an operator, while Calgary-based Aries Aviation provided the aircraft. The April mission utilized ULethbridge’s unique Titan Multispectral LiDAR system, with some operational support from Airborne Imaging, also out of Calgary. The LiDAR scans sampled the Rockies from as far south as the U.S. border and north to Saskatchewan Crossing.

Photo depicts the Bow River just downstream from Banff. All photos courtesy of Dr. Chris Hopkinson.

“The data is confirming that the snowpack in the mountains is not very abundant,” says Hopkinson. “But it’s important to bear in mind that we don’t really have anything to compare it to because we’ve never done this before. All we can do is take our estimates of snowpack water equivalents in the mountains and relate it to similar data structures such as precipitation gauges, snow pillows, field data or runoff records.”

While the LiDAR results are comparable to traditional measurements, LiDAR can provide more spatially precise data.

“It’s telling us, for example, that the Oldman is showing a lot less snow water in the mountains than the Bow,” says Hopkinson. “But we’d probably expect that anyway just because the Bow is higher in elevation, slightly farther north and has wider mountains. But now we’re able to quantify these things in a way we previously couldn’t.”

Hopkinson’s team includes Dr. Celeste Barnes, a post-doctoral fellow who provided project management and data analysis, Jessica Van Gaalen, a master’s student who prepared the data for the cloud computing environment to train an online model and Italo Rodrigues, a PhD candidate who prepared the various layers of data to build an online model of the snow cover. Maxim Okhrimenko, a PhD student and LiDAR lab manager, helped plan the surveys and flying. Farnoosh Aslami, a research associate, assisted with the project by working up data layers as needed. Also working on the project are Dr. James Craig at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Waterloo and Dr. Ryan MacDonald (BSc ’06, MSc ’09, PhD ’14), CEO of MacHydro Consultants.

“The idea is that we’ll use these data to input into a hydrological modelling scheme to do the forecasting,” says Hopkinson. “It’s innovative because you don’t normally have a spatially continuous map of snowpack that you can then put into a hydrological model. Hopefully, in the next month or two, we’ll get some scenarios from these data that will parallel or supplement the kind of forecasting work the province is doing.”

In the future, having more precise snowpack measurements will help guide water management policies and practices.

Hopkinson group part of documentary work on avalanche slope

trevor.kenney — Wed, 21 Mar 2018 18:03:19 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s ARTeMiS (advanced-resolution terradynamic monitoring system) Lab will be featured as part of a science documentary recently filmed by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the Public Broadcasting System (PBS).

Zhouxin Xi, Dr. Chris Hopkinson, Thomas Porter and Celeste Barnes were on site for four days at Fortress Mountain.

Dr. Chris Hopkinson, Chair in Terrestrial Ecosystem Remote Sensing and a member of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s Department of Geography, was contacted by the BBC/PBS production to join a group of international scientists as they examined an avalanche slope on Fortress Mountain in Kananaskis Country. Hopkinson, an expert in LiDAR (light detection and ranging), agreed to take part if he could also include some of his students in the work.

“Zhouxin Xi, Celeste Barnes and Thomas Porter all joined me and did an excellent job representing the U of L in a very professional manner,” says Hopkinson.

The project was a collaboration of four international scientists led by Dr. Jim McElwaine of Durham ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in the UK.

“Over a period of four days, we collected a lot of 3D data over the avalanche slope and were able to estimate avalanche volumes before the avalanche was triggered,” says Hopkinson. “McElwaine modelled the avalanche behaviour using slope morphology and snow density data. He used our initial laser scan to assist in training the model, and then we scanned again after the avalanche to estimate the volume of snow in the avalanche to partially validate the model.”

The film crew shooting a segment with members of the U of L contingent.

Barnes, a PhD student working on mountain snowpack visualization and modeling using LiDAR, Xi, a PhD student working on terrestrial laser scanner algorithm development, and Porter, an undergraduate student and research associate supporting various mountain water and ecosystem research projects, were all interviewed by the BBC/PBS film crew. In addition, Porter employed a drone throughout the exercise and it’s expected some of his footage will be used in the film.

The documentary is currently in post-production and is expected to be released in the fall of 2018.

“Working on what felt like a military filming and interview schedule was both exhausting and exhilarating for all concerned. The mix of professors and students working side-by-side on a shared and high-tech time-sensitive research goal with cameras rolling was the most intensely educational experience I could imagine,” says Hopkinson. “The U of L laser scanning effort could not have succeeded without the hard work and dedication shown by Celeste, Zhouxin and Thomas. I am fortunate and proud to have been a member of such a talented team.”

UNews - Celeste Barnes

Measuring the snowpack — ��Ѹ�����Դ���߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge partners with Alberta Environment and Protected Areas

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