Authors: R. Woolgar (Hatch), A. Pryse-Phillips (Hatch), K. Rogers (Nalcor Energy), A. Khan (Government of Newfoundland and Labrador), T. Puestow (C-Core) and S. Warren (C-CORE)
Canadian Dam Association
Abstract
Recent years have seen an increase in Earth Observation missions providing satellite imagery for operational monitoring
applications. Earth Observation imagery has been found particularly useful for the surveillance of large, remote areas,
which is difficult to achieve in a cost-effective manner by conventional field-based or aerial means. This paper discusses
the utility of satellite-based monitoring for different applications relevant to hydrology and water resources management.
Emphasis is placed on the monitoring of river ice covers in near real-time and the extraction of land cover parameters for
hydrotechnical studies. To this end, a framework is presented to characterize suitable EO missions, including newly
available, high-resolution radar and optical systems, such as RADARSAT-2, TerraSAR-X and QUICKBIRD. The use of
EO-derived information by hydrologists and engineers within a hydrotechnical context is considered, and the successful,
cost-effective integration of satellite-based products into existing processes is demonstrated.
