Borstad Associates Ltd. - CSA Outreach Task 3

CSA Outreach Task 3

Project 3. Acquire and print older satellite images from the early 1980’s, early 1990’s and compare them with the most recent image to illustrate changes in land use patterns throughout the watershed over the past 20 years.

The importance of indicators as measures of changes in ecosystem health over time throughout a watershed make the Landsat archive dating from 1972 an extremely valuable asset. The archive of Landsat data received at Canada’s two ground stations at Gatineau in Quebec and Prince Albert in Saskatchewan is not complete. However, it can be supplemented by data from the University of Maryland’s Global Land Cover facility (GLCF) that is also accessible via the Internet.

To illustrate the role of Landsat as a record of changes over time, two images from Path 15, Row 29 have been downloaded in *.tif format from GeoGratis. The first is a 1987 Landsat-5 image and the second is a 2003 Landsat-7 image. The image covers the Barrhaven suburb Southwest of Ottawa and it is clear that over that there has been extensive development over the intervening years. The Rideau River flows northwards along the right hand side of the image and the Jock River flows from left to right across the lower part of the image. This type of information can provide an overview of changes in land cover / land use and run-off patterns to such organisations as the Rideau River Conservation Authority.