Annual glacial outburst floods from Alaska’s Suicide Basin release huge volumes of water into the Mendenhall River valley in just hours, threatening downstream communities and infrastructure near Juneau. Because traditional monitoring systems are often unable to handle the harsh environment around the basin, ERDC is looking to deploy a rugged, non-contact terrestrial lidar system – a system built upon proven successes in Greenland – to precisely measure water levels and ice volumes from a distance. This high-fidelity data provides the engineering foundation needed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to design flood mitigation infrastructure.
Listen to Episode 78 (PowerofERDCPodcast.org/78-Glacial-Outburst-Flooding) to hear ERDC’s Adam LeWinter discuss this monitoring system. You can also watch a video of the episode.
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MORE INFORMATION:
- Juneau races to find ‘lasting solution’ to annual glacial floods
- Alaska’s Suicide Basin shows the hidden danger of glacial lake outburst floodsÂ
- USACE Announces Unprecedented Approach to Protect Juneau, Alaska from Mendenhall Glacier FloodsÂ
- VIDEO: ERDC team captures an iceberg calving event at Suicide BasinÂ
- Watch an animated fly-through that displays some of the lidar survey data collected
