Innovative Multispectral Remote Sensing for Critical Canadian Environmental Change Assessment

必须以严格的科学方法对环境变化进行量化和评估。这项研究响应了增加我们对环境变化知识的需要，为了实现这一目标，我们将更好地利用遥感和计算机建模等新技术的进步。该研究小组将致力于解决在正在或即将经历重大工业发展的地区，如阿尔伯塔省的山麓模型森林地区和安大略省北部的“火环”地区，在实际监管过程和环境影响评估中出现的问题。这项研究将提高我们对当前环境条件和过程的认识，以及预测森林和泥炭地等有价值的生态系统组成部分的环境变化的能力。环境地貌学将充分发展为基于点、剖面、区域和物体的方法，以提供可行的定量变化分析。强大的新型遥感工具将被开发出来，以便在多个尺度和时间上对环境变化进行系统的观测。两名博士，四名硕士和两名荣誉学生将在五年的授予期内完成他们的课程。这项研究将对环境管理、规划和实践产生直接影响。任何研究正在经历重大发展的景观的人，任何有环境管理或评估问题的人，或者需要对环境变化进行科学观察的人，都将受益于我的结果和方法。这包括环境、森林、石油和天然气、矿业领域的科学家和管理人员，政府机构，如加拿大自然资源部、加拿大环境部、加拿大公园、地质调查局和省级土地管理机构。

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.