It is established that licensed radionuclide discharges into the Irish Sea develop a systematic association with marine sediments. The ability to map the remobilization and transport of these sediments is important to enable a deeper understanding of the fate of these radionuclides in estuarine environments. In situ and laboratory measurements were used to characterise the relationships between suspended sediment concentrations and ~(137)Cs activity with reflectance characteristics, as a precursor to the use of airborne imagery. High spatial (c. 2.5m) and temporal resolution data (CASI and ATM) were captured to quantify suspended sediment concentrations and transport in the Ribble Estuary, UK. A series of nine images were collected over a flood tide for animation to investigate the fate of radionuclides and the complexity of this hydrodynamic environment. Results are presented which demonstrate the use of airborne remote sensing to provide a unique solution to monitoring the fate of radionuclides in estuaries.
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