Environmental monitoring of Canadian forces bases using remote sensing

The Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces maintain ongoing environmental stewardship programs at the department's bases. Each base presents different challenges and unique environmental concerns. DND's Directorate of the Environment is utilising and evaluating remote sensing technology as a potential means to cost effectively monitor the ongoing efforts at each base. Images are selected and acquired for the target base using the particular environmental properties to be measured as criteria. The evaluation centres on large area Army and Air Force bases in the Prairie Provinces. In northern Alberta and Saskatchewan, both Radarsat and Landsat data has been acquired to examine Caribou habitat and migration patterns through the Cold Lake Air Weapons range. The Radarsat beam mode was selected to extract geologic and land use information. The Enhanced Thematic Mapper data from Landsat 7 provides both multispectral and high resolution panchromatic information. Fusing of these two Landsat data sets increases the information available for the Air Range. For CFB Shilo in south-west Manitoba, historic Landsat images have been incorporated into a time series to facilitate change detection studies. Fusing of both SPOT and ETM Ch 8 data with the spectral imagery is also applied as an enhancement technique. In addition, various environmental indicators are being studied in conjunction with the imagery to provide quantitative assessment tools. Within southern Alberta two major Army bases are being evaluated. The first is CFB Wainwright where radar interferometry using two, different angle Radarsat images is being used in producing Digital Elevation Models (DEM)for integration with a topographic informational database. The second is CFB Suffield, where a temporal study using ETM, TM, and MSS data is being conducted, similar to the Shilo plan. Initial results indicate that remote sensed data has the flexibility and adaptability for the environmental monitoring of large military land areas.