Student Bio
Riley Cormier received his Honours Bachelor of Science – with distinction – in Environment and Physical Geography from Nipissing university with a certificate in Geomatics in 2019. During this time, he was a research assistant in the Nipissing Earth Observation Laboratory where he got to work on several remote sensing projects studying the health of mangroves in Australia with James Cook University, and precision agriculture in northern Ontario with Agriculture Canada. His undergraduate thesis research was using historical air photos to create digital mosaics for tracking logging on the Dokis First Nation lands from 1928 to 2016. Using these mosaics, along with current air photos from the Forest Resource Inventory and Central Ontario Orthophotography Project, he developed an object orientation classification using Ecognition Developer to quantify the changes that have occurred. The classification also quantified the current extent of wetlands, coniferous and deciduous forests, as well as water and bare ground.
Currently, Riley is enrolled as a Master of Science candidate in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Carleton University under Professor Murray Richardson. His research is focused on snowmelt modelling in the Niaqunguk watershed in Iqaluit, Nunavut. A hydrological model of snowmelt will be built using the Raven hydrological modelling framework. This model will incorporate a variety of water balance components including snow, rain, evapotranspiration, sublimation and surface flow collected from micrometeorology towers located around the watershed. Snow depth and extent will be measured using structure from motion with multi-temporal flights from a remotely piloted aircraft system and extensive field surveys. The model will be used to model paths and quantity of waterflow within the watershed which will help the City of Iqaluit in planning and managing their freshwater resources.