1. Ottawa’s CATALYST launches UrbanSAR — tracking building movement floor by floor from space
2. MDA Space secures 41 early customer commitments for MDA CHORUS™ ahead of late 2026 launch
3. BC flooding puts real-time geospatial monitoring in the spotlight
4. Canada’s 2026 wildfire season forecast: geospatial tools ready as fire danger builds
5. Alberta flood mapping momentum: 330 km of new maps coming in June

Ottawa’s CATALYST launches UrbanSAR — tracking building movement floor by floor from space

Ottawa-based PCI Geomatics (operating under its CATALYST brand) has launched UrbanSAR, a satellite monitoring product that detects how individual buildings are shifting — floor by floor — across entire construction corridors. The technology uses Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) to measure millimetre-scale structural movement from orbit, isolating individual structures in dense urban environments where traditional ground sensors struggle to keep pace.

CATALYST tested UrbanSAR on Toronto’s Yonge and Eglinton corridor, where dozens of high-rises are going up above a new subway extension. The system detected up to 30 millimetres of movement in the upper floors of newly built towers — levels that physical sensors typically miss. “Ground sensors are precise, but they only tell you what is happening at one point,” explained Chief Product Officer Kevin Jones. Countries like Australia and the UK are already beginning to mandate satellite monitoring for urban construction, suggesting this kind of geospatial oversight may soon become the norm in Canada as well. UrbanSAR is now available globally as a service.

Read more about UrbanSAR here.

MDA Space secures 41 early customer commitments for MDA CHORUS™ ahead of late 2026 launch

Richmond, BC-based MDA Space announced on May 5th that it has finalized nine early customer contracts and received 32 letters of interest for data from its upcoming MDA CHORUS™ Earth observation constellation, set to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 in late 2026. The announcement was made at the GEOINT Symposium.

CHORUS combines C-band and X-band SAR sensors in a mid-inclination orbit, imaging the Earth day or night and in all weather conditions. Its coverage ranges from a 700 km-wide broad-area swath down to sub-metre spotlight images — the most extensive radar imaging capacity available in a single commercial system. Customer interest spans Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Europe, North America, and the Middle East, with applications in maritime surveillance, defence, mining, energy, and forestry.

As the successor to RADARSAT, CHORUS is a cornerstone of Canada’s Earth observation sovereignty. The strong pre-launch commercial momentum signals that when CHORUS lifts off later this year, it will do so as one of the most significant Canadian space events of the decade.

Read more about MDA CHORUS™ here.

BC flooding puts real-time geospatial monitoring in the spotlight

British Columbia’s River Forecast Centre has been issuing near-daily flood warnings, watches, and high streamflow advisories across the Upper Columbia, Kootenay, Lardeau, North Thompson, and Upper Fraser East corridors throughout the final week of May and into June 1st, with several systems upgraded multiple times as snowmelt and rainfall converge across the Interior.

This is exactly the situation where real-time geospatial data becomes a life-safety tool. The Forecast Centre relies on stream gauges, weather stations, snowpack sensors, and satellite monitoring to build the hydrological models behind its public warnings. The integration of satellite-derived snowpack data, LiDAR-based elevation models, and digital terrain analysis is what makes rapid, accurate flood forecasting possible.

As climate change drives more frequent and intense spring flood events across Western Canada, the geospatial infrastructure supporting emergency response will only grow in importance. The BC River Forecast Centre’s live advisories can be followed here.

Canada’s 2026 wildfire season forecast: geospatial tools ready as fire danger builds

The federal government released its 2026 wildfire season preparedness update on May 28th, and the outlook is serious. As of that date, 65 active wildfires were burning across Canada, with six out of control. Above-normal temperatures are forecast coast to coast through June, July, and August, with British Columbia identified as facing the highest and most sustained fire risk. Long-standing drought in Western Canada is compounding the danger.

NRCan’s fire danger modelling — drawing on satellite-derived land cover data, terrain analysis, fuel moisture measurements, and weather forecasting — drives the national fire danger maps that guide resource deployment decisions. The upcoming WildFireSat satellite mission (targeting 2029) will further strengthen Canada’s geospatial fire monitoring capability by providing near-real-time fire detection data from a dedicated Canadian constellation.

To bolster capacity for this season, the federal government has committed $316.7 million over five years to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre for aerial firefighting capacity, including 10 new aircraft already secured for 2026.

Read the full wildfire season update here.

Alberta flood mapping momentum: 330 km of new maps coming in June

Alberta’s government announced on May 29th that new flood mapping studies launched this spring will produce approximately 260 kilometres of new or updated maps for 10 communities — adding to nearly 600 kilometres already underway. Since 2020, Alberta has completed roughly 1,900 kilometres of flood mapping, more than in the previous 35 years combined.

The next major milestone is this month: approximately 330 kilometres of mapping covering 13 communities — including Grande Prairie, Lacombe, Ponoka, Edson, Lamont, and Manning — will be released for public engagement in June, the final step before finalization. A further 250 kilometres covering communities such as Lethbridge and Crowsnest Pass will follow later this summer. The program is cost-shared between the province and the federal government under the national Flood Hazard Identification and Mapping Program, with Alberta budgeting $2.76 million for 2026-27.

More than 80 per cent of municipalities covered by provincial flood mapping now reference the maps directly in their local land-use bylaws — a clear indicator of how geospatial data is being embedded in community planning and risk management across the province.

View Alberta’s flood maps through the Flood Awareness Map Application here, and read the full announcement here.