RNCan – Canada Center for Mapping and Earth Observation
Number of internship offered : 1
Internship duration : mai à septembre 2023 (à déterminer)
Business description :
The Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation (CCMEO) is the Government of Canada’s centre of excellence for geomatics, mapping and earth observations. CCMEO is part of the Strategic Policy and Innovation (SPI) within the Department of Natural Resources Canada (NRCan). From satellite to desktop, Natural Resources Canada provides leadership in the field of geomatics and open-source information via organizations such as the CCMEO. The CCMEO is responsible of gathering, storing, processing, and delivering spatially referenced or location information concerning the Canadian territory.
The amount of geospatial data managed by the CCMEO, such as satellite imagery, aerial photography, vector data, and most recently point clouds from LiDAR, keeps increasing. The processing and analysis of such a large amount of data requires new approaches and techniques. To fulfill its mandate, the CCMEO uses the latest innovations in remote sensing and geospatial data processing, such as artificial intelligence, multidimensional data cubes and Big Data management systems. CCMEO has access to a federal high-performance computing (HPC) centre and a private cloud environment to process large volumes of data.
The CCMEO is also involved in several national projects that aim to address various climate change issues, such as floods, forest fires and energy efficiency. Internationally, it regularly represents Canada in major geomatics organizations such as the United Nations (UN), the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and its American counterpart the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
Responsabilities and duties :
The GeoBase division of Natural Resources Canada’s (NRCan) Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation (CCMEO) has ongoing requirements to continually enhance foundational geospatial information in support to governmental priorities. One such priority for NRCan and its partners is in taking actions to better protect Canadians from the impacts of flooding by, first and foremost, identifying areas of higher risk and completing flood mapping activities in those areas to better inform preventive and mitigating measures.
In order to support flood mapping activities, as well as a wide range of other activities, CCMEO wishes to onboard a national-scale flood inundation model. This model would be used to inform flood mapping prioritisation activities and will enable CCMEO to measure impacts of improved version or new foundational geospatial datasets.
A Western University research group led by Dr. Simonovic and colleagues demonstrated that the CaMa-Flood model could be used for this purpose in Canada. Although the model has been implemented in Western University’s High Performance Computing (HPC) environment, it has not received ongoing support and these resources are not available to NRCan. As such, we are currently working to integrate the CaMa-Flood model into our HPC environment to support the floodplain mapping activities conducted by GeoBase in partnership with our provincial and territorial counterparts. Once integrated and validated, new research opportunities will be identified through the inclusion of datasets that were not available in previous CaMa-flood analysis efforts.. With the support of subject matter experts, the intern joining GeoBase would be responsible for identifying these opportunities and testing out various associated hypothesis to ultimately identify avenues to improve foundational geospatial datasets and thereby support additional ongoing efforts on flood mapping in Canada.
Working environment :
The intern will work in a multidisciplinary team and will have to collaborate with other teams of CCMEO.
He/she will be entrusted with important tasks and responsibilities and will participate in related activities like project and coordination meetings, presentation of results, technical and follow-up discussions, etc.
In addition to receiving continuous technical supervision, he/she will have a substantial latitude in the choice of means to meet objectives, in order to maximize learning opportunities.
The internship will be done in hybrid mode both working remotely and on site (Ottawa or Shebrooke). The intern is, during his / her internship, a full-time employee of the CCMEO. He / she therefore participates in various activities of the Center and can avail of a work schedule called « flexible » or « compressed ». The work week is comprised of 37.5 hours and the salary is competitive.
Rates of pay: https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/pay/rates-pay/student-rates-pay.html
Qualifications and skills :
Technical requirements
Required:
- Canadian citizenship or permanent residency
- Experience and interest in computer programming, particularly in Python
Preferable:
- Knowledge of spatial data management (raster, vector, point cloud)
- Experience with GIS Software (QGIS, FME Safe Software and/or ESRI ArcGIS)
- Knowledge of hydrological and statistical analysis principles
Personal requirements:
- Autonomy and reliability
- Good interpersonal relationships
- Ability to work in teams
- Ability to communicate effectively orally and in writing
- Bilingual (French, English) preferred but not required
Operational requirements:
- Ability to telework or to work in the CCMEO offices in Sherbrooke or Ottawa
Contact :
If you are interested in this course, please contact by email coordonnateur du programme DOTS