Time-Series Land Change Detection of the Athabasca Oil Sands Surface Mineable Area Derived from Landsat Multispectral Data; 1985 to 2015 (Image data, TIFF format)

The time-series land change detection data of the oil sands surface mineable area were derived from Landsat multispectral data. They contain 2 classes: 1 - land disturbance and 2 - vegetation recovery. These categories can be used as baseline data for planning, managing, and monitoring surface infrastructure needs and impacts.

The oil sands surface mineable area, Township 89 to 103, Range 3 to 14, west of the 4th Meridian, falls within the Lower Athabasca Regional Plan (LARP) area. As part of Alberta’s Land-use Framework, LARP was developed in 2012 to set the stage for robust growth, vibrant communities and a healthy environment within the region. One of its implementation objectives is to balance the economic development of oil sands and impacts on ecosystem and environment. This is to be achieved through enhanced science-based monitoring for improved characterization of the environment and collection of the information necessary to understand cumulative effects.

The time-series are stacked to create a 6-band TIFF image with each band representing a change period.