##  [Canadian Wetland Inventory using Google Earth Engine: The First Map and Preliminary Results](/resource/canadian-wetland-inventory-using-google-earth-engine-first-map-and-preliminary-results) 

Organization

[WSP E&I Canada Ltd.](/organization/wsp-ei-canada-ltd)

[Memorial University of Newfoundland](/organization/memorial-university-newfoundland)

[Natural Resources Canada (NRCan)](/organization/natural-resources-canada-nrcan)

[Chinese Academy of Sciences](/organization/chinese-academy-sciences)

[Carleton University](/organization/carleton-university)

[Government of Alberta (GoA)](/organization/government-alberta-goa)

[University of Lethbridge (UofL)](/organization/university-lethbridge-uofl)

 

 

Resource Type

[Peer reviewed article](/taxonomy/term/37)

 

 

Author(s)

Meisam Amani

Sahel Mahdavi

Majid Afshar

Brian Brisco

Weimin Huang

Sayyed Mohammad Javad Mirzadeh

Lori White

Sarah Banks

Joshua Montgomery

Chris Hopkinson

 

 

Original Authors

Meisam Amani

Sahel Mahdavi

Majid Afshar

Brian Brisco

Weimin Huang

Sayyed Mohammad Javad Mirzadeh

Lori White

Sarah Banks

Joshua Montgomery

Chris Hopkinson

 

 

Contacts

[Meisam Amani](/contact/meisam-amani)

[Sahel Mahdavi](/contact/sahel-mahdavi)

[Majid Afshar](/contact/majid-afshar)

[Brian Brisco](/contact/brian-brisco)

[Weimin Huang](/contact/weimin-huang)

[Sayyed Mohammad Javad Mirzadeh](/contact/sayyed-mohammad-javad-mirzadeh)

[Lori White](/contact/lori-white)

[Sarah Banks](/contact/sarah-banks)

[Joshua Montgomery](/contact/joshua-montgomery)

[Chris Hopkinson](/contact/chris-hopkinson)

 

 

Resource Date:

2019

 

 

Although wetlands provide valuable services to humans and the environment and cover a large portion of Canada, there is currently no Canada-wide wetland inventory based on the specifications defined by the Canadian Wetland Classification System (CWCS). The most practical approach for creating the Canadian Wetland Inventory (CWI) is to develop a remote sensing method feasible for large areas with the potential to be updated within certain time intervals to monitor dynamic wetland landscapes. Thus, this study aimed to create the first Canada-wide wetland inventory using Landsat-8 imagery and innovative image processing techniques available within Google Earth Engine (GEE). For this purpose, a large amount of field samples and approximately 30,000 Landsat-8 surface reflectance images were initially processed using several advanced algorithms within GEE. Then, the random forest (RF) algorithm was applied to classify the entire country. The final step was an original CWI map considering the five wetland classes defined by the CWCS (i.e., bog, fen, marsh, swamp, and shallow water) and providing updated and comprehensive information regarding the location and spatial extent of wetlands in Canada. The map had reasonable accuracy in terms of both visual and statistical analyses considering the large area of country that was classified (9.985 million km2). The overall classification accuracy and the average producer and user accuracies for wetland classes exclusively were 71%, 66%, and 63%, respectively. Additionally, based on the final classification map, it was estimated that 36% of Canada is covered by wetlands.