Dr.Ir. Joost van der Sanden

Image van der Sanden, Josephus Johannes
Research Scientist

Remote sensing research and development focussed at the extraction of information from radar images for subsequent application in support of natural resource and environmental management.

Current research and/or projects

Remote sensing research and development focussed at the extraction of information from radar images for subsequent application in support of natural resource and environmental management.

Research and/or project statements

  • Experience in multiple application areas, including agriculture, boreal forest, coastal zone, fresh water ice, and tropical forest.
  • Experience in the extraction of information from multi-frequency, multi-polarization, polarimetric and interferometric radar remote sensing images.
  • Developed and delivered courses on radar remote sensing basics, radar polarimetry concepts, and radar applications.
  • In-depth knowledge with respect to the applications potential of RADARSAT-2 image data.

Professional activities / interests

  • Co-chair of the Government of Canada SAR Applications Working Group.

Education and awards

Ph.D. in Radar Remote Sensing, Wageningen University, The Netherlands, 1997.

M.Sc. in Environmental Remote Sensing, Aberdeen University, Scotland (UK), 1988.

M.Sc. in Forestry, Wageningen University, The Netherlands, 1987.

B.Sc. in Forestry, Wageningen University, The Netherlands, 1984.

International experience and/or work

  • Delivered courses on radar remote sensing basics and applications in the China, Indonesia and the USA.
  • Contributed to international conferences and workshops.
  • Collaborated with international colleagues.
  • Participated in a Government of Canada mission to Thailand to assess how Canadian expertise could help address geospatial information needs arising from the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami (December 2004).
  • Experience with fieldwork in tropical forests located in Brazil, Colombia and Guyana. 

Key publications

Selected publications

  1. van der Sanden, J.J., H. Drouin, and T. Geldsetzer. (2021). "An Automated Procedure to Map Breaking River Ice with C-band HH SAR Data", Remote Sensing of Environment, Vol. 252, pp.
  2. van der Sanden, J.J., N.H. Short, H. Drouin. (2018). "InSAR Coherence for Automated Lake Ice Extent Mapping: TanDEM-X Bistatic and Pursuit Monostatic Results", International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, Vol. 73, pp. 605-615.
  3. van der Sanden, J.J. and N.H. Short. (2017). "Radar Satellites Measure Ice Cover Displacements Induced by Moving Vehicles", Cold Regions Science and Technology, Vol. 133, pp. 56-62.
  4. van der Sanden, J.J. and T. Geldsetzer. (2015). "Compact Polarimetry in Support of Lake Ice Breakup Monitoring: Anticipating the RADARSAT Constellation Mission", Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing, Vol. 41, No.5, pp. 440-457.
  5. van der Sanden, J.J., H. Drouin, and Y. Bian. (2013). "Repeat Pass InSAR Observations of River and Lake Ice Cover: A Preliminary Evaluation of Information Content", In: Proceedings of the 17th Workshop on River Ice, Edmonton, Alberta, 21-24 July 2013, pp. 258-271.
  6. Geldsetzer, T. and J.J. van der Sanden. (2013). "Identification of polarimetric and nonpolarimetric C-band SAR parameters for application in the monitoring of lake ice freeze-up", Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing, Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 263-275.
  7. van der Sanden, J.J. and H. Drouin. (2011). "Polarimetric RADARSAT-2 for river freeze-up monitoring; preliminary results", In: Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Science and Applications of SAR Polarimetry and Polarimetric Interferometry (SP-695), Frascati (Rome), Italy, 24-28 January 2011, 8 p.
  8. van der Sanden, J.J. and H. Drouin. (2011). "Satellite SAR Observations of River Ice Cover: A RADARSAT-2 (C-band) and ALOS PALSAR (L-band) Comparison", In: Proceedings of the 16th Workshop on River Ice, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 18-22 September 2011, pp. 179-197.
  9. van der Sanden, J.J. (2004). "Anticipated applications potential of RADARSAT-2 data", Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing, Vol. 30, No. 3, pp. 369-379.
  10. van der Sanden, J.J. and D.H. Hoekman. (2005). "Review of relationships between grey-tone co-occurrence, semivariance and autocorrelation based image texture analysis approaches", Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing, Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 207-213.

A more complete list can be found in NRCan's GEOSCAN publication database.