Monitoring the Variation in Ice-Cover Characteristics of the Slave River, Canada Using RADARSAT-2 Data—A Case Study
The winter regime of river-ice covers in high northern latitude regions is often a determining factor in the management of water resources, conservation of aquatic ecosystems and preservation of traditional and cultural lifestyles of local peoples. As ground-based monitoring of river-ice regimes in...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:0039119d87764336b86a6871f8395172 2023-05-15T16:23:06+02:00 Monitoring the Variation in Ice-Cover Characteristics of the Slave River, Canada Using RADARSAT-2 Data—A Case Study Thuan Chu Apurba Das Karl-Erich Lindenschmidt 2015-10-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3390/rs71013664 https://doaj.org/article/0039119d87764336b86a6871f8395172 EN eng MDPI AG http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/7/10/13664 https://doaj.org/toc/2072-4292 2072-4292 doi:10.3390/rs71013664 https://doaj.org/article/0039119d87764336b86a6871f8395172 Remote Sensing, Vol 7, Iss 10, Pp 13664-13691 (2015) river ice freeze-up spatio-temporal variation RADARSAT-2 Slave River high northern latitudes Science Q article 2015 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3390/rs71013664 2022-12-31T09:42:24Z The winter regime of river-ice covers in high northern latitude regions is often a determining factor in the management of water resources, conservation of aquatic ecosystems and preservation of traditional and cultural lifestyles of local peoples. As ground-based monitoring of river-ice regimes in high northern latitudes is expensive and restricted to a few locations due to limited accessibility to most places along rivers from shorelines, remote sensing techniques are a suitable approach for monitoring. This study developed a RADARSAT-2 based method to monitor the spatio-temporal variation of ice covers, as well as ice types during the freeze-up period, along the main channel of the Slave River Delta in the Northwest Territories of Canada. The spatio-temporal variation of ice covers along the river was analyzed using the backscatter-based coefficient of variation (CV) in the 2013–2014 and 2014–2015 winters. As a consequence of weather and flow conditions, the ice cover in the 2013–2014 winter had the higher variation than the 2014–2015 winter, particularly in the potential areas of flooded/cracked ice covers. The river sections near active channels (e.g., Middle Channel and Nagle Channel), Big Eddy, and Great Slave Lake also yielded higher intra-annual variation of ice cover characteristics during the winters. With the inclusion of backscatter and texture analysis from RADARSAT-2 data, four water and ice cover classes consisting of open water, thermal ice, juxtaposed ice, and consolidated ice, were discriminated in the images acquired between November and March in both the studied winters. In addition to river geomorphology and climatic conditions such as river width, sinuosity or air temperature, the fluctuation of water flows during the winter has a significant impact on the variation of ice cover as well as the formation of different ice types in the Slave River. The RADARSAT-2 based monitoring algorithm can also be applied to other river systems in high latitude ecosystems to annually monitor their ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Great Slave Lake Northwest Territories Slave River Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Northwest Territories Canada Great Slave Lake ENVELOPE(-114.001,-114.001,61.500,61.500) Nagle Channel ENVELOPE(-113.654,-113.654,61.233,61.233) Remote Sensing 7 10 13664 13691 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
river ice freeze-up spatio-temporal variation RADARSAT-2 Slave River high northern latitudes Science Q |
spellingShingle |
river ice freeze-up spatio-temporal variation RADARSAT-2 Slave River high northern latitudes Science Q Thuan Chu Apurba Das Karl-Erich Lindenschmidt Monitoring the Variation in Ice-Cover Characteristics of the Slave River, Canada Using RADARSAT-2 Data—A Case Study |
topic_facet |
river ice freeze-up spatio-temporal variation RADARSAT-2 Slave River high northern latitudes Science Q |
description |
The winter regime of river-ice covers in high northern latitude regions is often a determining factor in the management of water resources, conservation of aquatic ecosystems and preservation of traditional and cultural lifestyles of local peoples. As ground-based monitoring of river-ice regimes in high northern latitudes is expensive and restricted to a few locations due to limited accessibility to most places along rivers from shorelines, remote sensing techniques are a suitable approach for monitoring. This study developed a RADARSAT-2 based method to monitor the spatio-temporal variation of ice covers, as well as ice types during the freeze-up period, along the main channel of the Slave River Delta in the Northwest Territories of Canada. The spatio-temporal variation of ice covers along the river was analyzed using the backscatter-based coefficient of variation (CV) in the 2013–2014 and 2014–2015 winters. As a consequence of weather and flow conditions, the ice cover in the 2013–2014 winter had the higher variation than the 2014–2015 winter, particularly in the potential areas of flooded/cracked ice covers. The river sections near active channels (e.g., Middle Channel and Nagle Channel), Big Eddy, and Great Slave Lake also yielded higher intra-annual variation of ice cover characteristics during the winters. With the inclusion of backscatter and texture analysis from RADARSAT-2 data, four water and ice cover classes consisting of open water, thermal ice, juxtaposed ice, and consolidated ice, were discriminated in the images acquired between November and March in both the studied winters. In addition to river geomorphology and climatic conditions such as river width, sinuosity or air temperature, the fluctuation of water flows during the winter has a significant impact on the variation of ice cover as well as the formation of different ice types in the Slave River. The RADARSAT-2 based monitoring algorithm can also be applied to other river systems in high latitude ecosystems to annually monitor their ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Thuan Chu Apurba Das Karl-Erich Lindenschmidt |
author_facet |
Thuan Chu Apurba Das Karl-Erich Lindenschmidt |
author_sort |
Thuan Chu |
title |
Monitoring the Variation in Ice-Cover Characteristics of the Slave River, Canada Using RADARSAT-2 Data—A Case Study |
title_short |
Monitoring the Variation in Ice-Cover Characteristics of the Slave River, Canada Using RADARSAT-2 Data—A Case Study |
title_full |
Monitoring the Variation in Ice-Cover Characteristics of the Slave River, Canada Using RADARSAT-2 Data—A Case Study |
title_fullStr |
Monitoring the Variation in Ice-Cover Characteristics of the Slave River, Canada Using RADARSAT-2 Data—A Case Study |
title_full_unstemmed |
Monitoring the Variation in Ice-Cover Characteristics of the Slave River, Canada Using RADARSAT-2 Data—A Case Study |
title_sort |
monitoring the variation in ice-cover characteristics of the slave river, canada using radarsat-2 data—a case study |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs71013664 https://doaj.org/article/0039119d87764336b86a6871f8395172 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-114.001,-114.001,61.500,61.500) ENVELOPE(-113.654,-113.654,61.233,61.233) |
geographic |
Northwest Territories Canada Great Slave Lake Nagle Channel |
geographic_facet |
Northwest Territories Canada Great Slave Lake Nagle Channel |
genre |
Great Slave Lake Northwest Territories Slave River |
genre_facet |
Great Slave Lake Northwest Territories Slave River |
op_source |
Remote Sensing, Vol 7, Iss 10, Pp 13664-13691 (2015) |
op_relation |
http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/7/10/13664 https://doaj.org/toc/2072-4292 2072-4292 doi:10.3390/rs71013664 https://doaj.org/article/0039119d87764336b86a6871f8395172 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs71013664 |
container_title |
Remote Sensing |
container_volume |
7 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
13664 |
op_container_end_page |
13691 |
_version_ |
1766011292996337664 |