INVESTIGATING THE USE OF POLARIMETRIC RADARSAT-2 MULTI-TEMPORAL C-BAND SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR FOR LAND USE/LAND COVER MONITORING IN WEST NIPISSING, ONTARIO

This thesis / dissertation was completed and submitted at Nipissing University, and is made freely accessible through the University of Toronto’s TSpace repositoryThe purpose of this research is to analyze how changes in acquisition time and incidence angle affect various C-band SAR polarimetric intensities, co-polarized phase information, polarimetric response plots and decomposition parameters for various land uses and land covers typical of Northern Ontario. According to the type of targets examined, agricultural and non-agricultural, the thesis is divided into two manuscript-style chapters. The first manuscript examines how SAR parameters interact with forest, urban infrastructure, water and wetland targets whereas the second assesses how these parameters may be used to monitor the growth stages of five common cash crops, namely, barley (Hordeum vulgare), canola (Brassica napus), oat (Avena sativa), soybean (Glycine max) and wheat (Triticum spp.). In total, nine RADARSAT-2 polarimetric images were analyzed across a 14-week period from June to September 2011 using two sets of fine beam modes, FQ7 and FQ21, with incidence angles of 26° and 41° respectively. In general, the backscatter intensities for all targets were found to show a higher response when acquired at the shallower incidence (26°) angle. Regarding the non-agricultural targets, unique responses were observed for each target type, which suggests C-band SAR data as a feasible alternative to optical remote sensing for target discrimination. All cash crop targets showed a rise and fall in backscatter response over the course of the growing season, coinciding with changing growth stages. The polarimetric response plots and decompositions offered insight into the scattering mechanisms of each crop type, generally showing an increase in volume scattering as the crops reached maturity. Overall, soybean and canola showed a more similar response in comparison to the cereal cash crops.M.Sc