Optical Remote Sensing for Environmental Monitoring of Sites

Affected by Energy Extraction Nadia Rochdi and Karl Staenz

Alberta Terrestrial Imaging Centre University of Lethbridge

Content

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1. Optical remote sensing

2. Environmental monitoring for remediation management activities.

3. Monitoring procedure for site reclamation in Alberta (MOPRA) project

1. Optical Remote Sensing

Spot-5

AISA

• Optical sensors embarked on board of airborne and space borne platforms.

• Measure of the light reflected by the land/atmosphere system in the 400-2500nm wavelength domain.

Multispectral

Multispectral vs Hyperspectral Hyperspectral

Source: Gomez – George Mason University

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.

• 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.

Topography and Vegetation Structure

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

Tailings Composition (1/2)

Source: CCRS

Airborne Probe-1 Data 1998

Copper Cliff Mine

Tailings Composition (2/2)

Pyrite Pyrrhotite Jarosite Goethite Hematite Vegetation Water

Mine Tailings Geochemistry

Source: CCRS

Mine Site Rehabilitation (1/2)

1996

1998 1999

- Example - Sudbury, Ontario

Copper Cliff, Sudbury (ON)

Mine Site Rehabilitation (2/2) Copper Cliff Tailings Impoundment, Sudbury Ontario (Inco Ltd.)

Data Integration

Fe SO4 Hg 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991

Soil Chemistry

GeoDatabase for Revegetation Assessment

Geology

Topography

Vegetation Change

Evaluation, Assessment, Modeling

Revegetation Potential

High Low

Time Series Airborne Hyperspectral

1st level

Source: CCRS

0 % Cover 100

Impacts on Surrounding Environment

INDICATOR:

Vegetation Disturbance due to Mining Activity

SO2 emission, Sudbury, ON

60 km

30 km 8 km

3 km

Extraction of Vegetation Percent Cover from

zones around emissions source

Source: CCRS

Hyperion Data

3. Monitoring Procedure for Site Reclamation in Alberta (MOPRA)

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Funding (Nov. 2011 to Oct.2012) Tecterra Alberta Water and Environment Oil Sands Research Information Network (OSRIN)

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.

Abandoned and Reclaimed wells 1963-2011

Audit and/or inquiry assessment at all well sites are unrealistic and extremely costly

Goal

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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

Objectives

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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

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Study Areas

18

Cold Lake

Coal Valley

Lacombe

Calgary

Edmonton

Lacombe Cold Lake

Coal Valley

Remote Sensing

Airborne data • AISA Hyperspectral data • LiDAR data

Spaceborne data

• Multispectral SPOT • Multispectral Landsat • Multispectral RapidEye

Future Sensors

• Multispectral Sentinel-2

Baseline Land Cover/ Species Composition

• Evaluate Multispectral vs. Hyperspectral data

• Investigate the benefits of data fusion with LiDAR

Multi-year Monitoring (1/3)

Unsupervised Classification of Multi- year vegetation

index (NDVI)

1998-2011

Cold Lake

Multi-year Monitoring (2/3)

Well sites vs. reference sites

Lacombe Cold Lake

Difference in NDVI_avg

Multi-year Monitoring (3/3)

Change detection: revegetation in Cold Lake

Vegetation Condition

• Leaf Area Index • Vegetation fractional cover • Forest structural attributes • Stress indicators: chlorophyll and water stress

Lopez-Lozano et al., 2010

Popescu et al., 2002

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.