Monitoring permafrost degradation with drones

Anna Smith used drone surveys to monitor permafrost degradation throughout the territory as a student research assistant with our Permafrost and Geoscience research program.

Anna processed aerial drone images and produced high resolution mosaic images of numerous sites along the Dempster highway and Alaska Highway, as well as digital surface model representing the topography of the sites.

These sites are undergoing permafrost degradation, which causes damage to the highway. Aerial drone surveys are an important part of the monitoring conducted at these sites and contributes to mitigating the hazard permafrost degradation poses to roads.

Anna has now build-up on her data organization skills and has experience in remote sensing.