Landsat-Based Quality Evaluation Map For Cold Lake Oil Sands

A quality evaluation dataset derived from 2011 Landsat imagery identifies misclassified pixels in the Cold Lake oil sands region. It was produced by the Government of Alberta to support science-based environmental monitoring under the Lower Athabasca Regional Plan. The data flags areas affected by sensor noise, cloud, haze, and cloud shadow as 'bad pixels'.

Use Cases

• Masking out cloud-contaminated pixels in 2011 Landsat imagery using the 'bad pixel' flag for clearer land cover analysis.
• Assessing the accuracy of land cover classifications by identifying areas with potential sensor noise or atmospheric haze.
• Supporting cumulative effects studies by providing a quality layer to filter unreliable data in environmental monitoring of the Cold Lake region.

Strengths

• Covers a defined geographic area spanning 14 townships (56 to 69) and 11 ranges.
• Provides a direct quality metric (bad pixel flag) for 2011 Landsat data over a critical industrial region.
• Created by a government authority (Government of Alberta) for a formal regional planning framework.

Limitations

• Limited to a single year (2011), making it unsuitable for temporal change analysis without companion datasets.
• Unknown spatial resolution and specific Landsat sensor used limits precise technical application.
• The dataset's utility is confined to the specific Cold Lake region defined by the Lower Athabasca Regional Plan.

Provenance

Source

Government of Alberta

Collection Method

Derived from 2011 Landsat satellite imagery.

Time Range

2011

Freshness

Dataset metadata was updated in March 2026, but the underlying imagery is from 2011.

Geography

Cold Lake oil sands area, Alberta, Canada (Townships 56 to 69, Ranges 1 to 11, W4M).