Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems for Range Assessment in Southern Alberta

Ra��ar remote sensing of rangelands offers new possibilities for monitoring and managing a valuable renewable resource that has low productivity. Two studies were conducted on mixed prairie sites in southern Alberta in 1991 to examine the ability to detect range differences in radar backscaner. The data showed that radar backscalter was most sensitive to changes in soil moisture content for seasonal differences, but for synthetic aperture radar(SAR) images it was concluded that most of the backscalter differences were due to differences in surface roughness. These results indicate useful information about rangeland resources may be extracted from SAR. data especially when used in combination with visible and near infra­red reflectance and previous ground-based knowledge in a geographic information system.