Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

Recent advancements and availability of web-based mapping tools and multispectral satellite imagery provide unprecedented opportunities for environmental monitoring. These opportunities are the result of combining a wealth of publicly available satellite imagery, advanced processing techniques, and the wide availability and accessibility provided by an internet portal. However, obtaining, analyzing, and visualizing remotely sensed data generally requires expensive imaging software, powerful desktop computers, and specialized technical expertise. Thus, the ability to visualize and monitor, on-demand, environmental phenomenon, impacts, and change is limited to a few users. The goal of a collaborative project between AKS Geoscience Inc. and the Selkirk College Geospatial Research Center is to design a web-based geoportal that provides free access to publicly available imagery and the ability to interactively apply AKS analysis on the imagery for an area of interest. Example applications involve quantifying land surface attribute change over time, and would include mining reclamation efforts, oil spill clean-up efficacy, and monitoring vegetation succession. Bringing the functionality of sophisticated remote sensing software to the general user, accessible via the web will allow the user to explore data in unique ways which brings a whole new understanding of surface conditions. A future goal of this project is to create a commercial version of the portal that operates in conjunction with the public portal, but enables additional access to the latest high resolution imagery and ability to apply, on-demand, more complex analysis of the imagery.