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2008

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R2807

CLUBROOT

CLIENT: Enbridge    DATE: 2008

R2805

ICETECH 2008 International Conference and Exhibition Wrap Up
CLIENT: n/a    DATE: July 20-23, 2008 ( see also R2615)
DESCRIPTION: Dr. Bercha chaired the Organizing Committee for ICETECH 2008. The conference positively exceeded expectations with over 175 delegates attending, full sponsor and exhibitor subscription, over 50 technical papers presented, and an exciting social and accompanying persons program. The technical program, the events, the setting, and the attendees made it a very enjoyable and technically sound event! The technical program each day began with two plenary papers, including: the changing Arctic; evolution of offshore safety regulations and practices; naval architecture developments for the Arctic; escape, evacuation, and rescue (EER); and current major offshore Arctic projects and developments. Workshops on EER and Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment (AMSA) rounded out the technical program. ICETECH 2010 will be held in Alaska – watch for the new website (www.icetech10.org). ICETECH 08 Post-Conference Proceedings are available in CD format. Please visit www.icetech08.org or contact the Bercha Group for ordering information.

2007

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R2615

ICETECH 2008 International Conference and Exhibition on Performance of Ships and Structures in Ice
CLIENT: Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineerrs (SNAME)    DATE: July 20-23, 2008 (see also R2805)
DESCRIPTION: ICETECH-08 took place July 20-23, 2008 in Banff, Alberta, Canada. Dr. Bercha again chaired the Organizing Committee for this international conference and exhibition on performance of ships and structures in ice. Conference website: www.icetech08.org.

2005

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R2502

High Consequence Areas Identification and Ranking
CLIENT:  Confidential Client, Bogotá, Colombia          DATE: 2005

DESCRIPTION:  In risk assessment two principal aspects are addressed - the probability of occurrence and the magnitude of adverse consequences of an undesired event such as an oil spill. Regardless of probability of occurrence, if the consequences are high, such as multiple fatalities, the location where this can happen is termed a High Consequence Area (HCA). The client has undertaken to identify all such areas along its pipeline in order to undertake mitigation of these high consequences through appropriate mitigation methods. In this study, the following principal areas are addressed:

     - A working definition of HCAs is developed

     - A methodology for identification of the HCAs is defined

     - An identification of HCAs for the pipeline is conducted

     - Approaches to HCA mitigation are developed          

2003

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R2315

2000

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Seminar on Remote Sensing Project Management and Applications for Environmental Monitoring
Caracas, Venezuela                                           Date completed: November 1993
Canadian International Development Agency

DESCRIPTION:  The Bercha Group formulated curriculum, produced a manual, and conducted a technical seminar in Caracas, Venezuela as part of a Public Safety and Environmental Risk Management seminar series conducted in association with Geoexpert C.A. of Caracas. The three-day technical seminar covered a wide range of subjects, including: an introduction to remote sensing, general examples for environmental monitoring, sensor systems and airborne acquisition platforms, satellite sensors, manual interpretation, digital image processing, methods of map production from remotely sensed imagery, and applications to environmental monitoring. Although conducted in English, simultaneous translation occurred during the seminar, and seminar materials were available in both Spanish (Figure 1) and English.
The general objectives of this seminar were to provide managers, administrators, and other decision makers with a general understanding of the principals and applications of remote sensing with emphasis on environmental monitoring so that they can apply this understanding of remote sensing and its capabilities in support of management decisions. To achieve this general objective, the seminar focused on facilitating participants' understanding in the 10 key areas shown in Figure 2. An environmental monitoring example from the seminar is shown in Figure 3. 

Figure 1: Spanish cover	SERIE DE SEMINARIOS SEGURIDAD PUBLICA Y MANEJO DEL RIESGO AMBIENTAL CARACAS, VENEZUELA   SEMINARIO TECNICO 1B APLICACIONES DE LA PERCEPCION REMOTA AL MONITOREO AMBIENTAL     POR   BERCHA GROUP CALGARY, CANADA   EN ASOCIACION CON GEOEXPERT C.A. CARACAS, VENEZUELA   NOVIEMBRE 1993
The Seminar's Specific Objectives 1. Understanding of the applications of remote sensing for environmental monitoring. 2. An assessment of the capabilities of remote sensing to determine whether or not it can assist in specific problems or applications in environmental monitoring. 3. Ability to plan a remote sensing project for a specific application. 4. Familiarity with standard remote sensing technology. 5. Understanding the differences among remote sensing, GIS, and classical photogrammetry. 6. an appreciation of the types, formats, precisions, and accuracies of information recorded by remote sensing systems. 7. General understanding of what satellite systems are available for different applications. 8. Familiarity with the principles of manual and digital image interpretation to obtain information from remote sensing images. 9. An understanding of digital processing techniques which are available for the extraction of information from remote sensing data. 10. An understanding of the important parameters such as cost, schedule, regional as opposed to detailed coverage, resolution, precision, and accuracy considered in the development of an application-specific remote sensing program.	Figure 2: Ten Key Areas
Figure 3: Seminar example (Click on image for enlarged view)

R9303

.01

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SAREX-92 SAR Data Acquisition and Processing
European Space Agency              Date completed: January 1993

DESCRIPTION: In October of 1991, The Bercha Group with principal subcontractor Innotech Aviation Limited, was awarded ESTEC Contract No. 9643/91/NL/S2, entitled “Technical Support for the Implementation of the SAREX-92 Campaign”.
      The work under this contract entailed a preparatory and planning phase, an airborne data acquisition phase, and a post-flight phase dedicated to documentation and data processing. This work was carried out between November 1st, 1991, and October 15th, 1992.
     The planning phase involved specification of target areas, flight planning, permits and clearances, and administration for logistic provisions. SAREX-92 data acquisition involved the Convair 580 equipped with the C/X SAR instrument (Figure 1a), and flights over test sites in Venezuela, Guyana, French Guiana, Brazil, Colombia and Costa Rica (Figure 2). Mobilization took place from Ottawa on April 1st, 1992, and after a successful data acquisition program the aircraft returned to Ottawa on May 3rd, 1992. In addition to the SAREX-92 program funded by ESA, some data acquisition was undertaken for CCRS in Brazil, Costa Rica and Guyana.
      The data processing phase involved preparation of documentation, the transcription of the high density digital tapes (HDDTs) (Figure 3) to Exabyte computer compatible tape, slant to ground range and radiometric rectification, and production of image tapes and hard copy images. This phase of the program was carried out between May 1992 and October 1992.
      Figure 4 illustrates the operational configuration of the aircraft and image swath. Figure 5 shows a sample SAR image.
 

Figure 1a: Convair 580 equipped with the C/X SAR instrument	Figure 1b: Cockpit of Convair 580	Figure 2: Area Map (Click on image to enlarge)
Figure 3: The system used for SAREX was capable of recording full resolution, full swath images in 8 bit format on high density digital tape (HDDT). The HDDT console is shown here	Figure 4: Illustration of the operational configuration of the aircraft and image swath. The system has the capability to obtain imagery utilizing both X- and C-band radiation. (Click on image to enlarge)	Figure 5: Sample high resolution C-Band SAR image

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Risk Assessment for an Environmental Clean-Up Study of 21 Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line Sites in Canada
CLIENT: Canadian Commercial Corporation, on behalf of The United States Air Force       DATE: 1990/91 
DESCRIPTION: As part of the 1985 agreement between Canada and the United States to modernize the North American Air Defence System, the DEW Line System is being replaced by the North Warning System.  An environmental clean-up study of the 21 DEW Line Sites was commissioned in order to identify and investigate areas impacted by past waste disposal and spills and to determine and evaluate alternatives for the disposal of waste and remediation of spill areas.  A baseline risk assessment was carried out to document the magnitude of potential health and environmental risks at each of the 21 DEW Line sites and to provide a site specific quantification of risks to provide the basis for developing cleanup strategies. The baseline risk assessment methodology was based on that developed by the U.S. E.P.A. in their Risk Assessment Guidance for Superfund. The results of the baseline risk assessment were quantitative and qualitative characterizations of risk based on site specific exposure and toxicity assessments.  Both non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks were characterized for each contaminant at each site.  Non-carcinogenic hazard quotients were estimated to compare the level of site contamination to the potential hazard level.  Finally, carcinogenic risk was estimated in terms of the incremental probability of an individual developing cancer over a lifetime as a result of exposure to the site. 

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Airborne SLAR Surveillance Service - East Coast
Husky/Bow Valley East Coast Project                      Date completed: October 1984

DESCRIPTION: Bercha Group (Bercha) was contracted by Husky/Bow Valley (H/BV) to provide an ice and iceberg surveillance program in support of offshore drilling activities in the Hibernia area (Figure 1) during 1984. This was the first commercial ice and iceberg operational surveillance program in the area. The program extended from February 8 to June 30. During that period, 61 missions were successfully flown in the study area. The principal objective of the project was to determine the location of the ice edge and icebergs in the study and relay this information to H/BV in a timely and efficient manner (Figure 2).
Over 45 000 nm were flown by Bercha during the operational period and literally thousands of targets were detected. Comparison with ground truthing data has shown that some of the targets routinely detected by the Bercha team were growlers as small as 5 x 7 m. Scientifically, icebergs and other targets such as ships, buoy anchors, supply vessels and rigs were discriminated at a minimum of a 90% confidence level. From an operational point of view, the G-1 and SLAR proved their reliability and effectiveness as an operational support service. From an equipment point of view, the SLAR proved its reliability beyond any question. In the course of 61 flights, only 1 flight was cancelled due to equipment problems. SLAR more than adequately demonstrated its ability to perform on an around-the-clock basis, day or night, and under a variety of weather conditions. In several instances, the Bercha aircraft was the only airborne source of information as all other aircraft were grounded. This was due not only to the aircraft capability but also to the dedication of the aircrew and their ability to fly under marginal conditions.
      Due to the positional accuracy of the SLAR integrated with the aircraft horizontal systems, positioning of icebergs, bergy bits and growlers was available with only minimal error. Reliability of the equipment and dedication on the part of the crew reduced the SLAR downtime to a negligible amount. All-weather capability resulted in an on-call 24-hour operation. In summary, this first year of ice and iceberg surveillance was unquestionably successful. Confidence was developed in the MARS G-1 and SLAR system, the data product, and the logistics and communications network of a real-time operation.

Figure 1: Map of Study Area (Click on image to view enlargement)	Figure 2: Sample Study Results (Click on image to view enlargement)

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Development of a System for Application of Remote Sensing Technology and Data to the Estimation of Arctic Marine Mammal Populations and Distribution
Freshwater Institute, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Government of Canada   Date completed: March 1984

DESCRIPTION: This was a two-phase study directed at investigation of remote sensing equipment and techniques suited for Arctic marine mammal studies was conducted for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Western Office. In Phase I, current and future airborne and satellite remote sensing methods suitable for marine mammal surveys were reviewed and the capabilities of each system assessed. Manufacturers of remote sensing equipment were contacted and sensors displaying suitable resolution, operating specifications and capabilities were enumerated. Detection of marine mammals was classified into three levels; direct detection of actual mammals, indirect detection of features indicating mammal presence, and habitat identification. Each sensor capability for detection and identification of marine mammals was assessed, and the results were quantified through a sensor capability matrix. Aerial survey equipment and satellite sensor capabilities were examined for indirect and habitat detection and identification. Additionally, Phase I addressed availability of data, characteristics of platforms and ancillary hardware such as annotation systems and navigation equipment. Suitable systems were presented for further study. A map showing the study area is shown in Figure 1.
      Phase II involved development of an optimal survey system design, including definition of optimal remote sensing systems, design of tests for reliability and system capability, and definition of areas for further research and development.
      Image samples from the imaging systems considered are shown for SLAR (Figure 2), SAR (Figure 3), NOAA (Figure 4), and LANDSAT (Figure 5).

	Figure 1: Map of Study Area (Click on image for enlarged view)
	Figure 2: Side-Looking Real-Aperture Imaging Radar (SLAR) image – Each 25 km wide swath shown is imaged on either side of the aircraft with a ‘delay’ zone underneath the aircraft of 5-10 km either side of the flightline. In this example, ice information such as concentration, and water features such as poynyas and leads are clearly evident. (Click on image for enlargement)
	Figure 3: Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) – Provides high-quality ice data, particularly on small ice features such as ice fragments, streamers and bands. This figure illustrates an area of highly fragmented ice in the Labrador Sea, imaged by SAR, in which the data are digitally recorded, then processed onto positive film. This is a one-look system, imaging on one side of the plane only. (Click on image for enlarged view)
	Figure 4: National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite data source. Example of a NOAA satellite image recorded in the visible wavelength. As the visible wavebands are used, cloud and fog will be imaged as shown in the example over the darker, open water areas. The 1.1 km resolution of NOAA imagery restricts its usefulness in marine mammal investigations to general habitat data (Uses 2,400 km wide swath.). (Click on image for enlargement)
	Figure 5: LANDSAT satellite image – Illustrated is a LANDSAT multispectral scanner (MSS) image. The resolution restricts it to providing general habitat information only. (Uses a 186 km swath.) (Click on image for enlargement)

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Acquisition and Interpretation of SLAR Ice Imagery in the Prudhoe Bay Area
Joint Industry Project: Participants: Arco, Chevron, Exxon, Mobil, Phillips, Sohio     Date completed: March 1981

DESCRIPTION:  An aerial remote sensing, interpretation, and analysis program was carried out in order to generate information on ice break-up in the Prudhoe Bay area (Figure 1) in the Spring of 1980. The acquisition program consisted of the utilization of SLAR and aerial cameras for the acquisition of strategic imagery in the study area. Ancillary programs were included for groundtruthing, visual aerial observation by expert observers, and 35 mm photography. The SLAR overflight program consisted of a series of 9 sequential overflights to gather SLAR imagery in a 50 mile wide strip adjacent to the coast from Point Barrow to Barter Island, and several other special overflights both seaward into the multi-year pack and over designated near-shore areas.

       The imagery output consisted of complete SLAR coverage prints, mosaics, 400 planimetric aerial strip photographs, and numerous 35 mm prints and slides. The information yield, in addition to the imagery itself, consisted of the results of several levels of interpretive work, ranging from descriptive pictorial outputs to rigorous numerical results. The general interpretation program consisted of the generation of descriptive overlays for all the SLAR imagery. Quantitative interpretation results were generated utilizing a Bercha Group software package, yielding ice morphology and dynamics parameters statistically describing floe and feature characteristics, velocity fields, and other statistical and probabilistic parameters for the ice cover. Results of the numerical work were summarized in tabular and graphical format, adequately characterizing many of the mesoscale ice morphology and dynamics characteristics and their distributions throughout the break-up period over the spatial field of the survey area. Additional
interpretation work was carried out to expand current capability to interpret radar signatures of various ice features, including multi-year floes, ridges, and deformed ice. The physical yield of the work included over 250,000 sq. mi. of multi-sensor imagery at various scales, dominated by complete coverage of SLAR at a 1:250,000 scale, the scale controlled SLAR mosaics, aerial colour photographs, 35 mm colour photographs and slides, and the final report described herein. Conclusions of the work were presented, including conclusions of the efficacy of the methodology utilized as well as specific conclusions on the character of the ice system studied. Recommendations for further work for additional information extraction from the present imagery as well as for other programs were presented. Some of the photographic images generated during this project are shown in Figures 2 and 3.

Figure 1: Study area (Click on image to view enlargement)	Figure 2: Drill Site, Issungnak 061	Figure 3: Drill Ship