Understanding the role of trees and topography in determining power outage frequency across London, ON

While trees are regularly maintained to prevent damage from branches to power lines, power outages caused by vegetation still occur, and these outages are more common in some areas of London than in others. This work will correlate tree species-specific growth rates, tree species distribution maps, and topographical maps with the frequency of vegetation-related power outages across London, ON to determine potential drivers of tree growth (such as species identity, tree size, and indices of water availability) that should be accounted for in future vegetation maintenance plans. The potential of incorporating this key information into one interactive electronic platform that also captures the activities and observations of the forestry team would be a valuable asset to London Hydro. This tool would be the foundation of a continuously improving Vegetation Management Plan that would ultimately reduce the potential risk to reliability and safety and increase operating efficiency. TO BE CONT’D

Faculty Supervisor:

Danielle Way

Student:

Aathishaan Kubendran

Partner:

London Hydro Inc

Discipline:

Biology

Sector:

Environmental industry

University:

Program: