INNOVATION November-December 2015

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The conventional means to gauge and monitor thickness involved drilling holes in the road, but the practice takes time and can miss thin sections. It also isn’t feasible to conduct along the length of the road. Instead, Advisian’s radar system can either be towed behind a truck or snowmobile or, in sketchily thin stretches, pushed ahead of the vehicle. With a display screen located in the vehicle cab, the driver can map ice thickness, in real time, at 80 km/h. Permafrost Lately, Advisian is applying its ground-penetrating radar to mapping discontinuous permafrost. Resource development and extraction in the warming north has led to increased pipeline development in the region. However, removing tree cover and opening terrain to build pipelines and extract resources hastens permafrost melt, which can increase risk of collapsing pipelines and oil spills in remote wilderness areas. “If a company is building a pipeline, they must assume the worst-case scenario,” says Bauman. “We assume permafrost eventually will degrade, and we will engineer and design accordingly. [Companies] want to know how long the permafrost region is and how thick it is.” Mapping the extent and thickness of permafrost is critical to the design and engineering of safe and reliable pipeline systems. Applying radar to glaciers, ice islands, lake ice, muskeg, and permafrost helps us understand how these ice-scapes change throughout the year, as seasons change. It helps us protect infrastructure, communities, the environment, and economies in regions where cold and ice present challenges. v Using ground-penetrating radar, Chris Slater, P.Geo., of Advisian (a part of the WorleyParson Group) leads a survey team to collect bathymetric data from Williston Lake, in northeastern BC, and map routes where water under the ice is deep enough to permit year-round shipping. Photos: Advisian/WorleyParsons

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