Water resources experts present Badger flood forecasting at Cambridge meeting  

Dr. Amir Ali Khan, water resources manager for the Department of Environment and Conservation, and senior remote sensing GIS specialist, Thomas Puestow of C-CORE are attending the Polar View annual review meeting in Cambridge, England and will share their experience and expertise in the application of satellite RADAR imagery for flood forecasting for the Town of Badger.  Accompanying them are Dr. Charles Randell, C-CORE president and chief executive officer, and Desmond Power, director of remote sensing with C-CORE.  

Polar View brings together stakeholders from government, academia and industry to provide operational monitoring for the world's Polar Regions , as well as other areas impacted by snow and ice.  Funded under the European Space Agency's GMES Service Element, Polar View successfully completed Phase 1 (i.e. Year 1) of its operations.  The annual review, attended by the Polar View managers, key end users and strategy group members, will serve to focus priorities and lay out the way forward into Phase 2 and beyond.  

�My department is very fortunate to have the knowledge and expertise of Dr. Khan.  He has been recognized nationally and now internationally, and I know the people of our province are benefiting from his work,� said Minister Clyde Jackman.  �Dr. Khan is also a recipient of the 2005 Public Service Award of Excellence, and Mr. Puestow has worked on a number of projects in the area of remote sensing and its application.�  

Since December 2003, the Water Resources Management Division (WRMD) has been testing the use of satellite RADAR imagery from polar orbiting satellites on an operational basis to further improve the flood forecasting for Badger.  This RADAR imagery service has been provided by C-CORE under the Polar View initiative and has been funded by the European Space Agency�s Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) program.  GMES promotes the utilisation of satellites for public good and public policy support.  

The minister noted that RADAR images are used to determine the location of the ice front on the Exploits River and to calibrate the ice progression model currently used by the WRMD to simulate ice conditions for the purposes of flood forecasting.  �The use of RADAR imagery allows river observations to be made up to twice daily and provides additional information about changes to the ice condition between images,� said the minister.  

Satellite RADAR imagery used for flood forecasting is available for viewing on the Department of Environment and Conservation�s web site.  For more information on the RADAR imagery and their use in the flood forecasting for Badger, call the water resources management division at (709) 729-2563 or visit www.gov.nl.ca/wrmd/Badger/  

Media contact: Diane Hart, Communications, (709) 729-2575, 685-4401  

2006 07 07                                                      10:15 a.m.