| Mississippi River Under Close Observation |
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For the past several years, the Mississippi River Watershed, located immediately west of Ottawa, has been under close observation. Collaborative efforts between the Canadian Center for Remote Sensing (CCRS), the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority, Kije Sipi Ltd, a local High School and College have advanced the use of remotely sensed data in water resources management. The project demonstrates the use of integrating RADARSAT data with in-situ data to derive soil moisture conditions across the basin to aid water management operations.
The research basin encompasses over 4000 km2 of contributing surface area and is a major tributary to the Ottawa River. It is roughly rectangular in shape, stretching 100 km long by 40 km wide as outlined on the accompanying false color composite LandSat image. The river's main stem is over 200 km in length, drops 320 m in elevation and has five significant tributaries. There are more than 250 lakes scattered in the basin with numerous wetlands dotting a variety of land covers including a large expanse of forested lands with small tracks of agricultural and urban areas. The surface geology of the basin ranges from a thin veneer of till over Precambrian rock to thick Champlain Sea clays near the outlet.  Detailed physiographic information of the basin was compiled while a comprehensive field-level data collection program was undertaken to obtain approximately 2000 soil moisture samples with hydro-meteorological observations of air and ground temperature, rainfall, wind, radiation and streamflow being monitored from over a dozen stations throughout the basin. RADARSAT and LandSat imagery combined with weather radar coverage of the basin provided spatial representation of the key hydrological and meteorological parameters. A distributed hydrological model serves as the main integration and evaluation platform for both point and spatial datasets. The model is subsequently being used to assess the best mix of in-situ and remotely-sensed data to aid water resources planning and operations. Developing reliable and cost-effective techniques to utilize remotely-sensed data in water resources management will assist water managers in overcoming the current deficiencies in spatial coverage from in-situ monitoring methods. |