AI-Assisted Detection of Obstructions in Canadian Waterways
Safety & Security
What it collects
About a place
Anonymized data
- Location and environmental data about Canadian waterways, such as imagery, sonar, satellite, or sensor readings capturing the physical state of waterway corridors and potential obstructions within them.
About a measurement
Anonymized data
- Physical sensor measurements of waterway conditions — such as depth soundings, water flow rates, or remote sensing data — used by the algorithms to identify obstructions.
- Run by
- Transport Canada (TC)
- Where
- No fixed location
- Kept
- Not stated by the Helpful Places.
- Shared with
- Accountable organization
- Your copy
- You cannot see the data it holds about you. What you can do
What it is for
Safety & SecurityThis system uses algorithms developed by Transport Canada to automatically detect obstructions in Canadian waterways. It supports government employees responsible for waterway safety and navigability monitoring. The system processes data about waterway conditions and produces outputs to flag potential hazards. Members of the public are not direct users, but the safety of Canadian waterways affects all mariners and communities along those waterways.
What it collects and what happens to it
Data taken in
About a place
Anonymized data
- Location and environmental data about Canadian waterways, such as imagery, sonar, satellite, or sensor readings capturing the physical state of waterway corridors and potential obstructions within them.
About a measurement
Anonymized data
- Physical sensor measurements of waterway conditions — such as depth soundings, water flow rates, or remote sensing data — used by the algorithms to identify obstructions.
Processing
Anomaly Detection
- The core processing technique involves algorithms that detect anomalous conditions — obstructions — within Canadian waterways, flagging deviations from expected navigable conditions for review by Transport Canada staff.
What it does
Deciding (Analytical AI)
Human decides
- The system applies algorithms to classify or flag obstructions detected in waterway data. Outputs are directed to GC employees who make operational decisions based on the system's findings.
Sensing (Perceptive AI)
Human decides
- The system likely processes raw sensor or imagery data of waterways to extract structured detections of obstructions — converting environmental signals into structured findings for downstream review by government employees.
Outputs
About a place
Anonymized data
- Geospatial output identifying the location of detected obstructions within Canadian waterways — flagged locations and obstruction maps surfaced for GC employee review and operational response.
A recommendation or prediction
Anonymized data
- The system produces algorithmic flags or alerts recommending GC employee attention to specific waterway locations where obstructions have been detected. Final action decisions remain with human staff.
Run by
Transport Canada (TC)
- Transport Canada is the federal department accountable for this AI system, which was developed to detect obstructions in Canadian waterways. The system is used by Government of Canada employees.
Built by
Not stated by the Helpful Places.
Kept for
Not stated by the Helpful Places.
Shared with
Available to the accountable organization
- Outputs and data produced by the system are available to Transport Canada (GC employees) for internal waterway safety and monitoring operations.
Not available to me
- The system is used internally by GC employees. Members of the public do not have direct access to the system's outputs or data.
Stored
Not stated by the Helpful Places.
How to read the colours
Can it identify you?
- Anonymized data
- Data about people with the link to who is broken. Stripped of identifiers, blurred, aggregated, or noised so this system can’t reasonably tie a record back to an individual.
- Pseudonymous data
- Each person’s data is tied to a token (hash, ID, template) that lets this system recognise the same person across events, but the token itself doesn’t reveal a name. Reidentification is possible with extra information.
- Identifiable data
- The data either contains a direct identifier (name, address, account name, recognisable face or voice, plate number) or carries a token this system uses to look up legal identity during processing.
Who completes the loop?
- Human decides
- This mode suggests; a person decides what to do next. The AI is always advisory — a human is in the loop on every decision. Example: a triage tool ranks cases for a clinician who chooses which to see first.
- Human executes
- This mode decides; a person carries out the result. Example: an optimizer plans the day’s trash-collection routes, and drivers run them.
- Autonomous
- This mode decides and acts on its own. No person reviews each decision or carries out the resulting action.
Definitions from the DTPR standard. Amber is about your data, violet about who decides. The fuller the shape and the deeper the colour, the more identifying the data or the less a person is involved.
- AI registerTransport Canada AI Register — Monitoring Canadian waterways for obstructions (2526-TC-016)Government of Canada Open Government AI Register, entry 2526-TC-016, Transport Canada.
- AI registerTransport Canada AI Register — 2526-TC-016
- AI registerTransport Canada AI Register — 2526-TC-016
- AI registerTransport Canada AI Register — 2526-TC-016
- AI registerTransport Canada AI Register — 2526-TC-016
- AI registerTransport Canada AI Register — 2526-TC-016
- AI registerTransport Canada AI Register — 2526-TC-016
- AI registerTransport Canada AI Register — 2526-TC-016
- AI registerTransport Canada AI Register — 2526-TC-016
- AI registerTransport Canada AI Register — 2526-TC-016
- AI registerTransport Canada AI Register — 2526-TC-016
- AI registerTransport Canada AI Register — 2526-TC-016
- AI registerTransport Canada AI Register — 2526-TC-016
- AI registerTransport Canada AI Register — 2526-TC-016
- Register entryPublished by the Helpful Places. Reference 5c7b399e. This disclosure was drafted with AI assistance.Schema: ai@2026-05-06-beta
What you can do
Ask about this system
Questions go to the Helpful Places, not the vendor.
Your rights
- Right to Algorithmic TransparencyInformation about this AI system is published in the Government of Canada's AI Register. Members of the public may submit access-to-information requests to Transport Canada for further details about the algorithms used.
Risks and safeguards
- Physical harmMissed obstructions (false negatives) could leave waterway hazards undetected, posing navigation safety risks to mariners. Risk: False positives could unnecessarily restrict access to navigable waterways.Safeguard: Outputs are reviewed by GC employees before operational decisions are taken, ensuring human oversight of algorithmically-flagged hazards.