Freshwater Remote Sensing
Satellite monitoring of lake temperature, turbidity, water quality, and seasonal change.
Geomatics Scientist · Remote Sensing Researcher · Educator
Harnessing Earth observation and GeoAI to advance environmental and human resilience.
I am Dr. Gifty Attiah, a geomatics scientist whose work combines earth observations, GeoAI, environmental modelling, machine learning, field data, cloud and high-performance computing to understand changing landscapes and ecosystems.
12+years of geomatics research and application
10+publications and archived datasets
20+conference presentations
$220K+awarded research grants
Lake Ice and Climate
Spatial modelling of ice thickness, freeze-up, break-up, and long-term climate responses.
GeoAI and Modelling
Machine learning, sensor fusion, cloud computing, and scalable environmental workflows.
Open Environmental Data
Reproducible datasets and tools for researchers, agencies, and northern decision-making.
About
Research at the intersection of Earth observation, freshwater science, and environmental decision-making.
I am a Postdoctoral Fellow and Contract Teaching Faculty member in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. I also serve as Administrator of the Cold Regions Research Centre.
My research develops long-term environmental datasets and scalable geospatial workflows for changing landscapes and landuse. I work across lake surface temperature, ice thickness and phenology, turbidity, water quality, climate trends, and landscape change.
My background spans academia, environmental consulting, conservation GIS, agricultural field mapping, software development, and university teaching in Canada, Germany, and Ghana.
Selected research
Research programs and technical contributions
Each project combines environmental questions, rigorous geospatial methods, and reusable research outputs.
Great Slave Lake
Turbidity and water-quality dynamics
Remote sensing · Machine learning · Water quality
A multi-sensor research program designed to create a long-term, spatially continuous record of turbidity across Great Slave Lake.
Research focus
Understanding how river inflows, lake circulation, temperature, and seasonal conditions shape turbidity patterns and long-term change.
Approach
Harmonized MODIS and VIIRS observations, in-situ measurements, dual-threshold random forests, pixel-wise trend analysis, and spatial clustering.
Contribution
A daily 2002–2025 turbidity dataset, mapped water-quality regimes, and a reproducible workflow for large northern lakes.
North Slave Region
Lake ice thickness and phenology
Lake ice · Climate change · Spatial modelling
A spatially distributed modelling framework for examining how lake ice conditions have changed across hundreds of sub-Arctic lakes.
Research focus
Assessing how lake size, depth, location, and climate influence ice thickness, freeze-up, break-up, and ice-cover duration.
Approach
Landsat-derived lake surface temperature, ERA5 climate forcing, thermodynamic modelling, validation, and multi-decadal spatial trend analysis.
Contribution
Daily lake ice estimates for 535 lakes from 1984–2022 and evidence of widespread thinning and shorter ice seasons.
Northern Lake Temperature
Four decades of thermal change
Earth observation · Climate records · Open data
A lake-specific satellite archive developed to reveal long-term thermal patterns across northern lakes that are poorly represented by ground monitoring networks.
Research focus
Examining how open-water, ice-covered, transition-season, and annual lake temperatures have changed over four decades.
Approach
Landsat thermal observations, lake-specific masking, seasonal compositing, MODIS validation, and time-series trend analysis.
Contribution
An open 1984–2021 dataset supporting climate research, lake-ice modelling, and regional freshwater monitoring.
GeoAI and Land Change
Machine learning for environmental mapping
Classification · Remote sensing · Machine learning
Applied machine-learning research for mapping surface mining, land cover, vegetation, and environmental disturbance from multispectral satellite data.
Research focus
Determining which combinations of spectral bands, indices, and classifiers best distinguish complex environmental land-cover classes.
Approach
Sentinel-2 and Landsat imagery, spectral-index engineering, SVM and random forest models, accuracy assessment, and change detection.
Contribution
Transferable workflows for automated classification, landscape monitoring, and environmental decision support.
Research outputs
Selected publications and open datasets
Peer-reviewed articles, preprints, and reusable environmental datasets.
Selected publications
Dual-Threshold Models for Turbidity Retrieval on Great Slave Lake Using MODIS and VIIRS
Attiah, G., Scott, K. A., Yerubandi, R., & Kheyrollah Pour, H. · Preprint
Spatially Distributed Modelling of Lake Ice Trends and Distribution in the North Slave Region
Water Resources Research, 61, e2025WR040216
Trend Analysis of Surface Shortwave Radiation in Continental Northwest Territories
Journal of Climate, 38(19), 5241–5263 · Co-author
Four Decades of Lake Surface Temperature in the Northwest Territories, Canada
Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies, 50, 101571
Lake Surface Temperature Dataset in the North Slave Region Retrieved from Landsat, 1984–2021
Earth System Science Data, 15, 1329–1355
Selected datasets
Great Slave Lake daily turbidity2002–2025 · FRDR
North Slave lake ice thickness and phenology1984–2022 · Borealis
North Slave lake surface temperature1984–2021 · Borealis
High-resolution daily climate data for Guyana1950–2024 · FRDR · Co-author
Great Bear and Great Slave Lake ice thicknessCLIMoGrid model output
Experience
Academic, technical, and environmental practice
Postdoctoral Fellow
Wilfrid Laurier University
Lake water quality, remote sensing, machine learning, geospatial dataset development, and student supervision.Contract Teaching Faculty
Wilfrid Laurier University
GIS, computer applications in geography, climate change, and applied geospatial instruction.Research Assistant
Remote Sensing of Environmental Change Lab
Lake ice pressure ridges, large-lake temperature, and distributed thermodynamic lake ice modelling.Research Fellow
University of Osnabrück
Satellite image processing software, RPAS fieldwork, vegetation monitoring, and agricultural remote sensing.GIS Analyst
Stiftung Naturschutz Schleswig-Holstein
Environmental GIS, Python ArcToolboxes, workflow automation, interactive maps, and spatial reporting.Research, Teaching, and Field Roles
University of Ghana, CERGIS, and Friends of the Earth Ghana
Teaching support, sustainable agriculture mapping, environmental data analysis, and reporting.Technical expertise
Tools, methods, and platforms
Earth observation
Landsat, MODIS, VIIRS, Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, RADARSAT, SAR, thermal remote sensing, image classification, change detection, and satellite validation.
GIS and geospatial systems
ArcGIS Pro, ArcPy, QGIS, GRASS GIS, FME, PostgreSQL, GeoServer, AutoCAD Map, spatial databases, map design, and geovisualization.
Programming and modelling
Python, R, GDAL, machine learning, random forests, SVM, clustering, PCA, trend analysis, spatially distributed modelling, GUI and Python module development.
Computing and reproducibility
Google Earth Engine, Linux, Bash, Git, Visual Studio Code, MobaXterm, WinSCP, cloud workflows, automation, and high-performance computing.
Teaching and mentorship
Building practical geospatial skills and supporting emerging researchers.
University Teaching Certificate and University Teaching Foundations Certificate.
Geographical Information Systems
Course instructor and lab instructor at Wilfrid Laurier University, covering GIS concepts, spatial analysis, practical labs, and applied problem-solving.
Computer Applications in Geography
Course instructor for data display, cartography, raster analysis, geospatial computing, and reproducible workflows.
Climate, Weather, and Natural Hazards
Course instructor in Climate Change, Weather and Climate, Natural Disasters, environmental impacts of mining, and future Canadian challenges.
Remote Sensing
Guest lecturer and laboratory instructor in satellite image interpretation, spectral analysis, classification, and Earth observation applications.
Student supervision
Mentorship of graduate students, undergraduate research assistants, and NSERC USRA researchers in remote sensing, environmental modelling, and scientific communication.
Funding and recognition
Competitive funding, awards, and professional recognition
Polar Knowledge Canada
Co-applicant: Arctic ice-road infrastructure and knowledge integration, 2025–2027.
Polar Knowledge Canada
Applicant: Field-calibrated sensing framework for climate impacts on northern lake water quality, 2026–2027.
Polar Knowledge Canada Fellowship
Fellowship supporting northern and polar research.
Laurier Graduate Outstanding Work Award
Recognition of outstanding graduate research contributions.
Leadership and knowledge mobilization
Research service beyond the laboratory
Current
Administrator, Cold Regions Research Centre
Coordinates operations, events, meetings, communications, and research-centre activities.
Current
Conference and Programs Committees
Canadian Science Policy Conference programming and Cold Regions Research Centre programs.
2024–Present
Peer reviewer
Reviewer for The Cryosphere, Remote Sensing, and Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies.
2026
Invited talk, Canada Water Agency
Observation of temperature and turbidity on Great Bear and Great Slave Lake at the Climate Change Workshop in Yellowknife.
Ongoing
Conference leadership and science communication
Session chair, poster judge, conference host, early-career executive, seminar organizer, and contributor to podcasts and research videos.
Contact
Let’s connect.
I welcome opportunities in remote sensing, GIS, environmental data science, freshwater research, GeoAI, university teaching, research leadership, and collaborative northern science.