New Data Sources for Completing National Topographic Mapping of Northern Canada at 1:50,000

• Published in: GEOMATICA
• Main Author: Clavet, Daniel
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 2011
• Subjects: Earth-Surface Processes; Geography, Planning and Development; Arctic; Nunavut; Northwest Territories; Canada
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.5623/cig2011-004; https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/pdf/10.5623/cig2011-004

Complete topographic mapping coverage of Canada is essential as a basis for the sustainable development of its resources. In 2000, the unmapped areas at a scale of 1:50 000 in the Arctic islands in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, amount to over 800 000 square kilometres, equivalent to approximately 1 500 map sheets. In 2003, a northern mapping project was launched to complete the topographic map coverage in Northern Canada. In order to explore all possible scenarios, the Centre for Topographic Information – Sherbrooke (CTIS) worked closely with the Canadian Space Agency and the private sector on various feasibility tests. After investigating multiple data sources, the combination of existing aerial photography, LANDSAT 7 ETM+, SPOT5/HRS imagery, interferometric pairs of ERS 1-2 tandem and RADARSAT-2 imagery were chosen for planimetric data and Canadian Digital Elevation Data (CDED) acquisition. In 2004, mapping contracts were carried out on a test site and positive results from these tests initiated the production of the unmapped areas of Canada. The planimetric vector data are available on the GeoGratis Web portal and the CDED data sets are available on the GeoBase Web portal.