Heavy lift drone for environmental and natural hazard monitoring

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Our RTI application requests the purchase of one heavy-lift Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS), the DJI Agras T30. This drone is essential primarily for the support of NSERC funded research and secondarily, work funded by other sources including the Canadian Space Agency and the National Research Council Canada. The T30 is the most user-friendly, reliable and technically capable heavy-lift battery operated RPAS available. The research supported by this equipment contributes to Canada's 2030 Agenda National Strategy regarding the Sustainable Development goals of life below water, climate action and life on land. This RPAS will enable Beyond Visual Line of Sight flights as well as accommodate a shortwave infrared hyperspectral imager (SWIR-HSI). In Canada, we will 1) quantify and map methane emission from cattail beds in the aquatic margins of a peatland, 2) estimate peatland water table position and gravimetric water content over large areas, 3) provide traceable validation data for current and upcoming spaceborne hyperspectral systems for peatland ecosystems. Peatlands cover 11% of Canada, and store 30% of the global soil carbon. What is critical for determining their role in a changing climate is to estimate the wetness of the peat, a key aspect for modeling respiration. Aquatic vegetation such as cattails account for up to 50% of the carbon related processes. We will also investigate natural hazards, specifically volcanos. Most Canadians are unaware that British Columbia and the Yukon have several dormant, but active volcanoes. These will erupt at some point and impact Canadian populations, agriculture and critical infrastructure (metropolitan and rural areas). As a proxy for Canadian volcanos, we will work at Poás, a highly active and dangerous volcano in Costa Rica with an active summit crater area; hence ideal for RPAS. We will use SWIR-HSI to 4) map the degree of hydrothermal alteration in detail to help us assess zones of weakness in and around the summit crater and 5) map the impacts of emitted acidic volcanic gases on forested areas near the summit and agricultural areas at lower elevations. We seek to identify not only areas that are obviously affected, but also to map subtle impacts with HSI that cannot be detected by normal visual means or instruments. Both Kalacska and Stix have a long demonstrated experience using and advancing the field of RPAS science. This equipment would immediately benefit and is a requirement for three current HQPs to complete their degrees and is also necessary for HQP planned to be recruited in the near future for the proposed research. They will develop a strong knowledge of HSI, image analysis, data standards, and analytic techniques needed for them to stand out amongst other future job applicants. The research made possible by the requested RPAS will allow them to become the next generation of innovative scientists in high demand in academia, industry, non-profit and government agencies.