Using Radar Images and Gis to Support ICE-Related Flood Forecasting/Utilisation D'ImagesRadar ET D’un Sig En Appui À La Prévision Des Crues Hivernales

In any northern environment, river ice provides essential winter transportation routes but can also be the cause of extreme flooding events. In situ measurements and hydraulic models are used to characterize, monitor and forecast the river’s behaviour. The FRAZIL system can be used to support the development and validation of such models, particularly in the presence of an ice cover. It includes a GIS component (ArcObject language) to assist in building the river channel geometry (channel ’s centreline and top width) and preparing data for a one-dimensional hydraulic routing model with rectangular channel approximation, such as RiverlD. It also has an image processing component, including a classification scheme to produce an ice-cover map from a RADARSAT image. Other tools are provided to use this map to derive relevant information, such as ice coverage, ice roughness and ice-jam length. All tools are mostly automated and based on easily available data.