At the Wet Areas Mapping Workshop, Jae Ogilvie, Forest Watershed Research Centre, University of New Brunswick outlines how LiDAR data was used to map wet area and their connectivity after the Rainbow Pipeline spill that occurred in 2011.
Conventional mapping of wetlands is compared to LiDAR based wet areas mapping. Seepage channels (not actual streams) can be identified and the hydraulic gradient predicted. The map of the spill and the predicted spill flow from wet areas mapping matched. Risk mapping can been done for existing industrial sites in Alberta's boreal forest. And with a spill, spill containment can be planned before staff actually arrive on-site to do the work.
The Wet Areas Mapping workshop was sponsored by Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, Foothills Research Institute and the University of New Brunswick and took place on Calgary, Alberta, on Feb. 11, 2013.
