The Nunavik Lake Ice ServiceS. Hughes1, A. Lewis2, O. Tsui1, J. Suwala1, A. Syed1, A. Dean1, T. Boivin1, V.

Blazevic3

1Hatfield Consultants, Suite 201-1571 Bellevue Avenue West Vancouver, British Columbia2Makivik Corporation, Nunavik Research Centre, C.P. 179 Kuujjuaq, Quebec3Strata360, 3745 rue St. Jacques Ouest, Suite 220, Montreal, Quebec

Nunavik• Sub-arctic / arctic territory

in northern Quebec• Majority of land is tundra

and taiga forest• 10,000 inhabitants of

mostly Inuit descent• Bounded by the 55th parallel to the south, Quebec / Labrador border to the East, Hudson Bay to the West, Hudson Strait to the north

• Over 660,000 km2

• Over 19,000 coastal islands

Background

• Lake ice monitoring service under PolarView

• Lake ice service provides regular updated information on ice conditions for specific regional lakes

• Two Inuit communities who rely heavily on Arctic char for subsistence

• Polarview Services include sea ice monitoring and forecasting, iceberg monitoring, ice edge monitoring, ice drift trajectories, river ice monitoring, lake ice monitoring, glacier monitoring, and snow monitoring

•Population of Kangirsuk is around 400, and population of Kangiqsualujjuaq is approximately 650

Goals

• Better management of Arctic char resources

• Update the current TEK data• Introduce the benefits of EO

data– Research staff & communities

• Understand impacts of climate change on char overwintering habitat

Arctic char, Tasikallak

TEK

• Traditional Ecological Knowledge

• Policy in Canada• Longer historical record

than science• Differ in observational

intensity and geographic coverage

• May lead to separate conclusions

• TEK has been defined as the knowledge claims of persons who have a lifetime of observation and experience of a particular environment, and as a result function effectively in that environment, but are untutored in the conventional scientific paradigm (Usher, 2000)

TEK Collection

• Historical TEK collection through an interview process

• Current use of internet using an online data collection system

The Northern Village Data Collection System (NVDCS) was designed and developed by the Makivik Corporation

It allows users to draw points, lines and polygons via an online map. After drawing is complete, an attribute form is filled in

All of the data is submitted to the server, verified, and added to the over 86,000 spatial records that already exist in the TEK database

Sites

• 100 km X 100 km• Important areas within

the zones were identified by TEK and interviews with community representatives– Overwintering areas– Historical numbers of char– Changes have been noticed– Fish die-offs, freezing to

the bottom

The northern village of Kangirsuk

Technology

• Ice conditions obtained from several data sources:– RADARSAT-1 Imagery– Envisat ASAR– Recorded and real-time

weather conditions– Real-time ice profile data– Ground observations and

TEK

Satellite Linked HOBO weather station, Payne River

Data

• Ice classification based on RADARSAT-1 imagery– 50 X 50 km, 8m res.

• Data gaps filled with Envisat ASAR imagery– 100 X 100 km, 30 m res.– Too course

• Some RADARSAT-1 images bumped

Tasikallak, December 6, 2006

Data

• HOBO weather stations– Temp, RH, Wind, Solar

• Shallow water ice profiler (SWIP)– Phases (bursts & profiles)– Ice thickness (post process)

• Data collection from Hunters– Ice & snow thickness

• Monitoring equipment is configured to an Iridium satellite transceiver

•The Iridium satellite constellation consists of 66 low-earth orbiting (LEO), cross-linked satellites operating as a fully meshed network and supported by multiple in-orbit spares.

• It is the largest commercial satellite constellation in the world

SWIP

Methods• Standard image processing

steps– Speckle filter– Calibrate– Georeference

• Manual interpretation2006 December 01 (F1 Asc. 22:00:55) / -3.6oC Blowing Snow

Thumbnail Status Description% Area Frozen

Observation

Initial Freeze-up

Ice beginning to form on lake

surface however does not

cover entire lake

25% - 50%

South Wind @ 10-20km/h. Prior to

previous acquisition: 7 day period of < 0

celsius.

The Lake Ice Service provides approximate dates of freeze-up and break-up as CIS provides on the state of the Canadian Cryosphere (SOCC) website http://www.socc.ca/lakeice/lakeice_current_e.cfm

• MANICE Manual (CIS) used to obtain correct terminology and colours for ice interpretation

• Ice classifications: Open water, initial freeze-up, completely frozen, initial breakup

Product Delivery

• Information delivery to local Inuit communities and hunters via an easy to use web-portal

• Standard display of contextual information – climate data, ice thickness, etc.

• Multi-year display of ice conditions

• Users can input comments and/or observations

• Multi-language

• Lake Ice Service

http://nunavik.lakeice.ca

• The Lake Ice Service is a part of a larger portal called the “Nunavik Project Portal” where we are attempting to identify all research throughout Nunavik in hopes of informing the communities more efficiently about the work being done in their traditional territory

Enhancements

• Integration of EO and TEK

• Geographic expansion• Sustainable funding• Training of hunters to

collect additional samples

• TEK collection using the NDVCS

Geographic expansion to the Nephijee system

• We currently stock char from our hatchery

• Multi-year fish counts of fish moving into the system from Ungava Bay

• Fish tagging (U Waterloo)

• Use a split beam sonar unit to “count” or monitor fish movement through key areas

For further information contact:

Adam Lewis, Makivik Corporation, a_lewis@makivik.org

Thomas Boivin, Hatfield Consultants, tboivin@hatfieldgroup.com