MAPPING WETLANDS IN NOVA SCOTIA WITH MULTI-BEAM RADARSAT-2 POLARIMETRIC SAR, OPTICAL SATELLITE IMAGERY, AND ELEVATION DATA

Abstract

Nova Scotia introduced a new wetland policy in 2011 which included a goal to have no net loss of wetlands. In order to meet this goal, the Nova Scotia government has committed to updating the provincial wetland inventory. The objective of this study will be to assess the accuracy of wetland mapping using remote sensing processes based on RADARSAT-2 polarimetric SAR images, optical imagery, and elevation data.

RADARSAT-2 polarimetric SAR images were acquired between 2010 and 2013 over an area southwest of Halifax. Two sources of optical imagery (QuickBird and Landsat 8) and two sources of terrain information (lidar and the provincial government contours) were combined in various arrangements with the radar. A non-parametric supervised Random Forests classifier was applied to the different data combinations. An accuracy assessment showed that using RADARSAT-2 combined with either source of data improved the accuracy of wetland identification over the existing inventory.