Jurjen van der Sluijs

Biography

Jurjen van der Sluijs received his M.Sc. degree in geography (remote sensing) from the University of Lethbridge in 2014. He is currently a Remote Sensing Analyst at the NWT Centre for Geomatics, Government of Northwest Territories (GNWT), where he develops geomatics applications for natural resource and cultural heritage management and monitoring in Arctic and sub-Arctic environments. His interests include the analysis of Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS), or drone datasets, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and multi-temporal satellite imagery for environmental disturbance and regeneration monitoring, studying permafrost dynamics and thaw-related infrastructure impacts under a changing climate, and documenting and digitally preserving culturally significant sites.

Jurjen has led or participated in over sixty UAS-related mapping projects across the NWT in a wide range of northern environments (Mackenzie Mountains, Beaufort Delta, Great Slave Lake lowlands) for numerous collaborators, including research organizations and Indigenous stakeholders. Jurjen is the UAS Program Coordinator for the GNWT and holds a Transport Canada Special Flight Operations Certificate that certifies him as a UAS Pilot-in-Command. Jurjen has successfully and safely completed over 140 flights using multiple multi-rotor and fixed-wing platforms, capturing high-resolution imagery totaling over 2,200 ha (22 km2 ) using visible-, multispectral-, and thermal-band sensors. Jurjen has over five years of experience in processing survey GPS and UAS data into high-quality photogrammetric ortho-mosaics, terrain models, environmental change indices, and outreach products such as 3D videos and online maps (>400 deliverables produced). This work, along with his satellite imagery initiatives have been published in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings.