Project Summary
Carleton University and the Aerospace Research Centre of Canada’s National Research Council (NRC) have been collaborating since 2020 to create Canada’s first domestic airspace model through the Canadian Airspace Modelling Project. This is only the second such model for any country, after MIT’s Lincoln Labs previously developed the US airspace model.
The Carleton (Dr. Jeremy Laliberté) and NRC (Dr. Iryna Borshchova) partnership has resulted in numerous joint publications, software tools, models, and most importantly, a cohort of highly qualified personnel, from undergraduate to doctoral levels, trained in airspace modelling, data science, and related techniques. The Carleton team has also contributed tools and research results to the development of new international standards for detection and avoidance systems led by NRC.
This work is only possible with the ongoing support of the NRC, NSERC (through the CREATE UTILI and Discovery Grant/DND Supplement programs), and an expanded partnership with other key stakeholders including Concordia University (Prof. Luis Rodrigues and his team), Transport Canada, NAV Canada, and other industry and government organizations.
Carleton is also an academic partner in the Alberta RTM Trials (iART Alliance) led by Air Market. The iART Alliance is seeking to build a validated remote traffic management (RTM) system throughout Alberta that will enable the safe integration of routine BVLOS and VLOS low-altitude drone flights with existing air traffic. Carleton is supporting the iART initiative through airspace risk assessments, air traffic modelling, and other activities to enable these future operations in Alberta and eventually across all of Canada.
Student Theses [September 2025]
- Chavda, N. Design and Validation of Beyond Visual Line-of-Sight Drone Flight Corridors in Low-Level Airways, Masters Thesis, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Carleton University, 2025. (Laliberté and Borschova) https://doi.org/10.22215/etd/2025-16617
- Kingma, S. A Framework for Assessing Aircraft Detect and Avoid Systems Using Monte Carlo Simulations, Masters Thesis, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Carleton University, 2024. (Laliberte and Borshchova) https://doi.org/10.22215/etd/2024-16311
- Basawanal, A. Development and Qualification of a Drone-Based Anemometry Platform, Masters Thesis, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Carleton University, 2024. (Laliberte and Borshchova) https://doi.org/10.22215/etd/2024-15921
- Krings TdJ. Statistical Modeling of Air Traffic: Development of Methods and Application through a Canadian Case Study, Masters Thesis, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Carleton University, 2023. (Laliberte and Borshchova) https://doi.org/10.22215/etd/2023-15528
Research Publications [September 2025]
- Borshchova, I., Laliberte, J., Krings, T. Canadian Airspace Models (Version 1.0), 2023. [Computer software and technical reports]
- Chang J, Krings TdJ, Ooi B, Borshchova I, Laliberte J. Quantitative Assessment of Urban Air Collision Risks. Journal of Air Transportation. 2024. https://doi.org/10.2514/1.D0420
- Krings TdJ, Laliberté J, Borshchova I, Ellis K. Development of methods for statistical modeling of air traffic demonstrated through a Winnipeg-area case study. Drone Systems and Applications. 2023 (Winner – Best Student Paper AEAC 2023). https://doi.org/10.1139/dsa-2023-0015
- Li S, Chang J, Chavda N, Borshchova I, Laliberte J, Rodrigues L. Unmanned Aircraft Path Planning Using Air Traffic Density. IEEE 18th International Conference on Control & Automation (ICCA), Reykjavík, Iceland, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCA62789.2024.10591824
- Krings TdJ, Chang J, Borshchova I, Laliberte J. Building a Model for Safe Integration of RPAS into Low-Level Canadian Airspace, 59th Canadian Transportation Research Forum, Kelowna, BC, 2024.