Mapping Coastal Change along Southwest Banks Island, Northwest Territories, Canada

Coastal communities in the Canadian Arctic are increasingly susceptible to the combined effects of inland flooding, shoreline erosion and variations in sea level as elevated surface air temperatures facilitate changes in the cryosphere. This study employs multi-spectral imagery , obtained predominantly from Landsat , to quantify the rate of shoreline movement along a n 8 km segment of s outhwestern Banks Island, Northwest Territories, Canada, adjacent to the community of Sachs Harbour . Fifteen years of shoreline data covering the period 1984 - 2019 were used to evaluate rates of change. Results show that the coastline along s outhwestern Banks Island retreated at an average rate of ± 0.05 meters per year over the long-term. Further, the analysis revealed a dominant erosional signal across a significant portion of the study-area with approximately 65% of the alongshore shoreline moving landward over the time period evaluated.