The University of Lethbridge, along with Wilfrid Laurier University, is gearing up to host the 2020 Canadian Symposium on Remote Sensing at a unique off-campus location — The Explorer Hotel in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

The five-day conference, July 13-17, 2020, brings together the country’s foremost experts in remote sensing with this year’s focus on the increasing rate of change in today’s environment. Titled, Landscapes of Change; Remote Sensing for a Sustainable Future, the conference will showcase a wide range of technical, applied and natural sciences topics relevant to the remote sensing community. The group will also host special sessions and workshop discussion dedicated to remote sensing of environmental change and, more critically, how remote sensing-based knowledge can help pave the way for solutions at community to global scales.

It is the first time the conference is being held in the Northwest Territories and Dr. Chris Hopkinson, Chair in Terrestrial Ecosystem Remote Sensing and a member of the University’s Department of Geography is one of the lead organizers. He says the location will offer some unique opportunities for attending delegates.

“We felt it was appropriate to host our national meeting in Canada’s North, as the remote nature of these vast landscapes means satellite and airborne monitoring are the most effective ways to monitor the widespread ground-level impacts of climate change,” says Hopkinson. “The symposium will host all the typical themes relevant to our national community but given climate and land surface changes are most severe in the North, we will host special sessions and workshops dedicated to these topics.”

The conference program, although not yet finalized, will feature a host of educational workshops and daily keynote presentations on a range of local, regional and nationally significant topics in the field of remote sensing and change. There will also be ample opportunity for delegates to attend informal social and student networking events.

“The symposium is a great networking opportunity for senior and junior remote sensing professionals and students,” adds Hopkinson. “A unique element of this year’s meeting is how we plan to engage communities to understand their needs and explore opportunities for remote sensing-based solutions.”

For more information on the event, visit the conference website at https://crss-sct.ca/conferences/csrs-2020/