Automated Tool for Early Warning of Chlorophyll Blooms in Bay of Quinte

Session: 06. - Ecosystem Health and Recovery of the Bay of Quinte, Lake Ontario

Jeffrey Meyer, Lower Trent Conservation, [email protected]
Dawn Price, Esri Canada, [email protected]

Abstract

Quinte Conservation with the financial support of Environment and Climate Change Canada and Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, in 2010, commenced monitoring a series of water quality parameters related to primary production in the Bay of Quinte. The monitoring program, initially referred to as “Algae Watch”, is now known as “Bay of Quinte Long-Term Water Quality Monitoring Program.” This program monitors the bay during the growing season (May-Oct), once every two weeks. This scheduling is off-set by one week relative to DFO’s Project Quinte monitoring program.  Due to the regulated monitoring (spatially & temporally) of both programs a number of episodic events with high primary productions do not get monitored. The tools developed through this remote sensing implementation can be used as an early warning signal to Quinte Conservation that a high production event is occurring on the bay at a specific location.  Satellite image data services from LandSat 8 and MODIS are sourced from NASAs GIBS system and served using ESRI mosaic datasets in near-real-time.  Images are queried daily using Python scripts which sample the data using the ArcGIS REST API.  When thresholds are met an email is issued to relevant personnel indicating specific locations for sampling.  

1. Keyword
satellite technology

2. Keyword
algae

3. Keyword
Bay of Quinte

4. Additional Keyword
Chlorophyl

5. Additional Keyword
automation

6. Additional Keyword
ESRI