Laurier co-hosting Canadian Symposium on Remote Sensing with focus on climate change in northern regions

June 11, 2021

Wilfrid Laurier University is co-hosting the 42^nd annual Canadian Symposium on Remote Sensing (CSRS), a virtual event taking place from June 21 to 24. This year’s theme is Understanding Our World: Remote Sensing for a Sustainable Future.

“This conference will bring together the country’s foremost experts in remote sensing, with some international guests, to focus on the increasingly rapid rate of environmental change in cold regions,” says Homa Kheyrollah Pour, an assistant professor in Laurier’s Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences and the Canada Research Chair in Remote Sensing of Environmental Change.

Kheyrollah Pour is co-chairing CSRS with Chris Hopkinson from the University of Lethbridge. Four Laurier PhD, master’s and undergraduate students – Gifty Attiah, Alicia Pouw, Coleton Madge and Jason Skidmore – are also taking a leadership role in organizing the conference as members of a student committee, and Laurier’s Cold Regions Research Centre is an event sponsor.

The four-day symposium will include workshops, training, panel discussions and keynote speeches. Keynotes include:

• Maurice Borgeaud, Head of Science Applications and Climate Department, Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes, European Space Agency
• Jan Saijets, Secretary for the Akwé: Kon Group, Finland
• Claude Duguay, Research Chair in Cryosphere and Hydrosphere from Space, Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo
• Mathieu Benoit, Director, Natural Resources Canada

Kheyrollah Pour specializes in remote sensing, a field of research that involves acquiring information from a distance, typically via satellite or aircraft. Her research group studies how climate change is impacting cold region hydrology such as lake ice and snow cover. Kheyrollah Pour and her team apply mathematical modelling and machine learning to satellite observations to understand the relationship between ice extent, environmental drivers and water quality in the Northwest Territories.

As part of Laurier’s longstanding research partnership with the Government of Northwest Territories, the organizing committee initially planned to host CSRS 2021 in Yellowknife. While COVID-19 caused the event to become virtual, it will include a video welcome from Rebecca Alty, the mayor of Yellowknife, and music from Northwest Territories artist Leela Gilady. 

All academics, students, practitioners, vendors and policymakers from the remote sensing community are invited to attend CSRS. Registration is required. For more information, visit the CSRS 2021 website.