Innovative Multispectral Remote Sensing for Critical Canadian Environmental Change Assessment

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Environmental change must be quantified and assessed in a rigorous scientific approach. This research responds to the need to increase our knowledge of environmental change, and to accomplish this we will make better use of advances in new technology such as remote sensing and computer modeling. The research team will contribute to resolving questions that arise in practical regulatory processes and environmental impact assessments in areas undergoing, or soon to experience, significant industrial development, such as the Foothills Model Forest region in Alberta and the 'Ring of Fire' region in northern Ontario. This research will improve our knowledge of current environmental conditions and processes, and the ability to predict environmental change in valuable ecosystem components, such as forests and peatlands. Environmental geomorphometry will be developed fully as a point-, profile-, area- and object-based approach to provide a viable quantitative change analysis. And powerful new remote sensing tools will be developed to permit the systematic observation of environmental change over multiple scales and times. Two PhD, four MSc and two Honours students will complete their programs in the five year granting period. The research will have immediate implications for environmental management, planning and practices. Anyone working with landscapes undergoing significant development, anyone with an environmental management or assessment issue or a problem requiring scientific observations of environmental change, will benefit with access to my results and methods. This includes scientists and managers in the field of environment, the forest, oil and gas, and mining sectors, government agencies such as Natural Resources Canada, Environment Canada, Parks Canada, Geological Survey, and provincial land management agencies.