Landscape Change at the Impounded Goose River Estuary in Linden, Nova Scotia

Created as a course component in an undergraduate remote-sensing focused course.

The Goose River estuary is a small, impounded estuary in Linden, in western Nova Scotia, emptying into the Northumberland Strait. It is likely that it has been impounded since the 1840s with a crossing over Goose Creek, which feeds the estuary. DSAS analysis of shorelines and the main channel of the river using aerial photographs reveal changes over the last 85 years that mirror changes seen in the Petitcodiac River, a larger, once-impounded system in the area. Analysis of the dune systems that protect marsh areas on the east and west sides of the estuary show that the western dune is stable, whereas the eastern dune is quickly receding and will likely disappear by 2044. Understanding how this small system, of which there are many that drain into the Northumberland Strait, has changed in the past can help inform questions of change at other river estuaries, as climate change increases the scope and magnitude of shoreline landscape change.