Evidence, legal compliance and satellite Earth observation Ray Harris and Ray Purdy

Evidence, legal compliance and satellite Earth observation

Ray Harris

Emeritus Professor of Geography

University College London

Director, Air and Space Evidence Ltd

Ray Purdy

Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Laws

University College London

Director, Air and Space Evidence Ltd

Structure

• Building the evidence base, ultimately for a court

• Examples

• Technology changes

• Costs

• Limitations

Evidence base

• Approximately one third of all complaints to the European Commission relate to the environment

• Growing need for compliance with European regulations

• Complaints process can be complex; NGOs have a very important role

Illegal landfill and rubbish burning

UK Environment Agency prosecution Ash mound 3m deep and 260 m circumference

October 2005

June 2004

Proposed landfill site Philippines - mangroves

Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide

New South Wales, Australia, illegal removal of woodland

8

Queensland, Australia : illegal tree removal

IKONOS

26 April 2002

1 2 3

4

5

1 2 3

4

5

Aerial Photograph

1 June 1999

Oil spill Gulf of Mexico : Deepwater Horizon

Envi

sat

ASA

R

Dredger on Lough Neagh

11

1970s 79 metres

1980s 30

1990s 10

2000 1

2001 0.6

2007 0.5

2015 0.30

Significant step change in spatial resolution

Sydney, Australia

Landsat 1975

DigitalGlobe 2014

Costa Concordia

Skybox – now Google. Burj Khalifa, Dubai

9 A

pri

l 20

14

, 90

se

c vi

deo

Costs

• Image data searches are free of charge

• Much Earth observation data free of charge, eg Landsat, Sentinel

• Very high resolution images approximately €320 for a 5 x 5 km image

• Tasking approximately doubles the price

Limitations

• Cloud cover, although radar can be useful

• Time windows : weeks rather than days

• Difficult to locate archived data

• Courts not yet used to Earth observation images in general

Conclusion

As the spatial resolution falls and the number of satellites increases, Earth observation data will be more often used in environmental law cases