Optical Remote Sensing for Environmental Monitoring of Sites Affected by Energy Extraction

Transcription

1 Optical Remote Sensing for Environmental Monitoring of Sites Affected by Energy Extraction Nadia Rochdi and Karl Staenz Alberta Terrestrial Imaging Centre University of Lethbridge

2 Content 1. Optical remote sensing 2. Environmental monitoring for remediation management activities. 3. Monitoring procedure for site reclamation in Alberta (MOPRA) project 22/08/2014 2

3 1. Optical Remote Sensing AISA Spot-5 Optical sensors embarked on board of airborne and space borne platforms. Measure of the light reflected by the land/atmosphere system in the nm wavelength domain.

4 Multispectral vs Hyperspectral Multispectral Hyperspectral Source: Gomez George Mason University

5 Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) Airborne LiDAR instrument acquires measurements back and forth across the flight line. They emit laser pulses in a small diameter comprised between 5 and 30 cm. Small-footprint or discrete return systems are commonly used for land surveying.

6 Topography and Vegetation Structure The laser pulse hit the canopy and return back towards the sensor. LiDAR sensor records the time of each return laser pulse and its corresponding intensity. GPS provides the x,y position of the target The z-coordinate of the targets is derived from the return time.

7 2. Environmental Monitoring of Remediation Management Activities 1. Tailing Composition 2. Mine site rehabilitation 3. Pollutant emission impact on surrounding environment

8 Tailings Composition (1/2) Airborne Probe-1 Data 1998 Copper Cliff Mine Source: CCRS

9 Tailings Composition (2/2) Mine Tailings Geochemistry Pyrite Pyrrhotite Jarosite Goethite Hematite Vegetation Water Source: CCRS

10 Mine Site Rehabilitation (1/2) Copper Cliff, Sudbury (ON) Example - Sudbury, Ontario

11 Mine Site Rehabilitation (2/2) Copper Cliff Tailings Impoundment, Sudbury Ontario (Inco Ltd.) 1 st level Time Series Airborne Hyperspectral Data Integration GeoDatabase for Revegetation Assessment Soil Fe Chemistry SO4 Hg 1986 Topography Geology Vegetation 1991 Change Evaluation, Assessment, Modeling High Low Revegetation Potential 0 % Cover 100 Source: CCRS

12 Impacts on Surrounding Environment Hyperion Data 60 km 30 km 8 km 3 km SO 2 emission, Sudbury, ON Extraction of Vegetation Percent Cover from zones around emissions source INDICATOR: Vegetation Disturbance due to Mining Activity Source: CCRS

13 3. Monitoring Procedure for Site Reclamation in Alberta (MOPRA) Funding (Nov to Oct.2012) Tecterra Alberta Water and Environment Oil Sands Research Information Network (OSRIN) 22/08/

14 Oil and Gas Well Sites Reclamation Alberta s Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act: The objective of conservation and reclamation of specified land is to return the specified land to an equivalent land capability Alberta Environment and Water: The regulatory authority responsible for issuing reclamation certificates. Audit process: Audit of 10-15% of submitted applications for reclamation certificates. After Audit: 25-year reclamation liability and lifetime contamination liability remains with the company.

15 Abandoned and Reclaimed wells Audit and/or inquiry assessment at all well sites are unrealistic and extremely costly

16 Goal Develop a remote sensing based procedure to support the oil and gas wells reclamation monitoring: Provide spatio-temporal information about vegetation condition in reclaimed well sites Incorporate this information in the decision making process to screen all sites and prioritize those showing a risk A more efficient allocation of available government resources 22/08/

17 Objectives Develop a baseline map which provides information about the type of landcover prior to well site establishment. Develop a multi-year monitoring approach to determine the temporal trend of vegetation condition within reclaimed areas (including pre-disturbance, mining, remediation, reclamation and post-certification) Retrieve information of interest about vegetation condition in well sites 22/08/

18 Study Areas Cold Lake Lacombe Cold Lake Coal Valley Coal Valley Edmonton Lacombe Calgary 22/08/

19 Remote Sensing Airborne data AISA Hyperspectral data LiDAR data Spaceborne data Multispectral SPOT Multispectral Landsat Multispectral RapidEye Future Sensors Multispectral Sentinel-2

20 Baseline Land Cover/ Species Composition Evaluate Multispectral vs. Hyperspectral data Investigate the benefits of data fusion with LiDAR

21 Multi-year Monitoring (1/3) Unsupervised Classification of Multi- year vegetation index (NDVI) Cold Lake

22 Multi-year Monitoring (2/3) Difference in NDVI_avg Lacombe Cold Lake Well sites vs. reference sites

23 Multi-year Monitoring (3/3) Change detection: revegetation in Cold Lake

24 Vegetation Condition Leaf Area Index Vegetation fractional cover Forest structural attributes Stress indicators: chlorophyll and water stress Popescu et al., 2002 Lopez-Lozano et al., 2010

25 Concluding Remarks Previous studies have highlighted the benefits of remote sensing for monitoring remediation activities. The MOPRA project offer the opportunity to explore the benefits of the available remote sensing technologies as well as those to be launched in the future for supporting reclamation success monitoring in Alberta.