Spatial data service, Landmap, can be put to many uses. But one of the most worthwhile is mapping intertidal coastal areas, where highly accurate and data-rich satellite images can help search and rescue teams save lives.

At Morecambe Bay, Lancashire, two of our geospatial experts behind Landmap, Gail Millin and Dr Kamie Kitmitto, made it onto BBC and ITV regional news programmes.

Their work there, mapping the mudflats and the waters around the Bay, has attracted media attention because of the vital information it can provide for the Bay Search and Rescue Team.

Helping to locate danger zones

In February 2004, at least 21 Chinese cocklers drowned in Morecambe Bay. Now, the team hopes to provide further crucial information about the physical dynamics of Morecambe Bay by using Landmap's satellite images, which can measure and map features accurately, even in cloudy conditions. With these images, we can forecast how the area's mudflats change each month, helping search and rescue teams locate these danger zones.

Dr Kamie Kitmitto explains:

"In Morecambe, the mudflats change continually with the tide coming in and out; so, to understand this we need continuous imaging from the air. That can be done using aerial photography, but it's just not economic or feasible to do on a continuous basis.

"Optical satellites are fine as well, but as we live in Britain there's too much cloud for clear imaging – especially in the North West. Radar, on the other hand, penetrates the cloud cover to give excellent image maps – once the data has been treated by us."

More about the technology

The type of imagery we use at Morecambe Bay is known as Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR). Although it has the major benefit of being able to map the Earth through clouds, until recently its use had been held back by two problems:

• the complexity of the radar data
• a restriction to black and white images, which are difficult to interpret and visually unappealing

Our approach with Landmap deals with both problems. We manage the complex data to produce images that are ready to use and have high positional accuracy. Users can start interpreting them straight away, and in the coming year, we'll be producing new training materials to make interpretation even easier.

We've also found a way to produce the images in colour, by using two different types of ASAR data:

• Image Mode (IM) – combines data from two separate dates to highlight differences in the environment
• Alternating Polarisation (AP) – data collected in two different modes simultaneously

And the future?

Building on our success at Morecambe Bay, we plan to put the technology we've developed to good use in other hazardous coastal areas.

As Dr Kamie Kitmitto comments:

"We hope this project will not only make the area safer for the cockle pickers of Lancashire and Cumbria, but may eventually provide powerful help to needy people in other parts of the world as well."