Multi-scale spatio-temporal monitoring of landscape energetics and environmental change

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The Applied Geomatics Research Group (AGRG) views the world from the top-down (using airborne sensor systems) and from the bottom-up (using instrumentation networks in the landscape). These two representations are combined for analysis and decision making in a Geographic Information System (GIS). Since 2000, AGRG has received significant funding from the federal agencies which has allowed us to operate airborne and ground based LiDAR systems as well as to maintain a meteorological network throughout the Annapolis Valley. This ARTI proposal seeks funds to add a thermal imaging sensor to our airborne systems; to expand and upgrade our meteorological network; and to refine our instrumentation for monitoring coastal processes. AGRG has worked closely with the Geomatics industry in Atlantic Canada. The additional equipment expands our capacity for collaboration with these technology partners as well as the businesses engaged in the application of the research results e.g. the agriculture, energy and environmental consulting sectors. Today AGRG has a staff of thirty, including graduate students. We support this operation by contracts with industry, e.g. Nova Scotia Power Inc. (NSPI); successful non-equipment grants, e.g. Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), Rural Secretariat, Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR); and base funding from the Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC). AGRG in Middleton is close to the Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) Centre of Geographic Sciences (COGS) which offers Advanced Diploma programs in Geomatics. We have access to over fifty graduate level students through our teaching and project-based learning. Many of these students go on to enroll in the joint M.Sc. in Applied Geomatics between Acadia University and the NSCC, or they enter a graduate program at an Atlantic university with AGRG scientist on their thesis committee. With the recent award of the NSERC CCIPE to the Applied Energy group at NSCC Dartmouth, this proposal enhances the opportunity for