A multi-sensor remote sensing approach for monitoring large wetland complexes in northern Canada

The Peace-Athabasca Delta is a 3900 km² freshwater wetland complex, located in north-eastern Alberta, Canada. The intricate channel system, the numerous smaller wetland basins and the large shallow lakes of the delta are important habitats for a large number of migrating waterfowl, mammals and insects. The hydrological regime in this remote area is unique as many of the productive wetland are isolated from the channels and require overland floods to be replenished. Recent studies have shown that the delta has experienced a reduced frequency of these large overland floods. Attribution of these changes is complex, however, remote sensing provides a unique opportunity to characterise the spatio-temporal distribution of these changes and to collect important baseline hydrological information that is too difficult to obtain using traditional methods. This paper focuses on a development of a multi-sensor remote sensing strategy to assess hydrological change in this wetland environment. This includes the use of Radarsat, Landsat, IKONOS and lidar data to derive year to year changes and assist in predicting future outcomes and risks for this ecosystem.