Charting Dynamic Areas in the Mackenzie River with RADARSAT-2, Simulated RADARSAT Constellation Mission and Optical Remote Sensing Data

Abstract

Mariners navigating within Canadian waters rely on Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) navigational charts to safely reach their destinations. To fulfil this need, CHS charts must accurately reflect the current state of Canadian coastal regions. While many coastal regions are stable, others are dynamic and require frequent updates. In order to ensure that important and potentially dangerous changes are reflected in CHS products, the organization, in partnership with the Canadian Space Agency, is exploring coastal change detection through satellite remote sensing (SRS). In this work, CHS examined a hybrid shoreline extraction approach which uses both Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and optical data. The approach was applied for a section of the Mackenzie River, one of Canada’s most dynamic river systems. The approach used RADARSAT-2 imagery as its primary information source, due to its high positioning accuracy (5 m horizontal accuracy) and ability to allow for low and high water line charting. Landsat represented the primary optical data source due to its long historical record of Earth observation data. Additional sensors, such as Sentinel-2 and WorldView, were also used where a higher resolution was required. The shoreline extraction process is based on an image segmentation approach that uses both the radar and optical data. Critical information was collected using the automated approach to support chart updates, resulting in reductions to the financial, human and time factors present within the ship-based hydrographic survey techniques traditionally used for chart improvements. The results demonstrate the potential benefit of wide area SRS change detection within dynamic waterways for navigational chart improvements. The work also demonstrates that the approach developed for RADARSAT-2 could be implemented with data from the forthcoming RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM), which is critical to ensure project continuity.