A review of Canadian remote sensing applications in hydrology, 1995-1999

The potential of remote sensing for providing information to hydrologists a nd water resources practitioners has been recognized since the 1970s. The v ariety of satellite and airborne platforms and the greater ease of access t o imagery now make it possible to evaluate and quantify an increasingly lar ge number of watershed physical characteristics and state variables. Canadi an scientists have been very active over the last 5 years creating algorith ms to extract hydrological information from remotely sensed data and to dev elop new, or adapt existing, hydrological methods capable of making efficie nt use of this new information. Over the years, research and applications o f remote sensing in Canadian hydrology have embraced a variety of topics an d recent research has placed significant emphasis on radar remote sensing a s the Canadian RADARSAT satellite was launched successfully on 4 November 1 995. This paper reviews recent (1995-99) remote sensing contributions in hy drology by Canadians, specifically focusing on the usefulness and applicabi lity of current remote sensing technology for water management purposes. A very brief description of the theory underlying each application as well as relevant sensors is presented. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.