Owners of contaminated sites must comply with land use restrictions and institutional controls on their property and consistently monitor their sites for any breaches or prohibited uses. Adhering to these restrictions is key to preventing accidental exposure to contaminated soil or groundwater. The goal is to keep the remedy intact and ensure that people and the environment are protected.
Knowing what rules apply to your land and how to comply with them is why Terradex exists, company vice president Mike Sowinski told the audience during a recent webinar, “Using Satellite Imagery Analytics for Change Detection at Contaminated Sites.”
Teaming up with SpaceKnow’s Ann Murgai and Jan Havlicek for the discussion, Mike highlighted how this innovative approach to land stewardship—using satellite technology—will make compliance with legal land use requirements easier.
There are currently thousands of contaminated sites across the country with institutional and engineering controls, such as prohibiting excavation of impacted soil and forbidding the construction of schools or daycares. Using its LandWatch solution, Terradex continuously collects land activity information from thousands of data sources (like permits and licenses). Change detection using satellite (or drone) imagery analytics adds a powerful additional approach for assessing and comparing site conditions from one period to the next using aerial imagery and analytics tools.
Terradex’s contaminated site stewardship reports combine Terradex’s conventional data monitoring approach with change detection analysis using satellite or drone images. These reports, for example, analyze one year of land activity married with one year of change detection analysis for a comprehensive look to determine if any land activities have occurred that could compromise institutional controls.
Change detection analysis can cover a variety of conditions, ranging from very small-scale items, such as erosion rills or cracks in pavement, to vegetative health changes and patterns, to new construction or alterations, to large-scale development or encroachment patterns. The use or combination of high resolution, low resolution, and even infrared imagery provides for this type of flexibility.
Terradex leverages change detection and its conventional land activity monitoring data to help customers ensure that they comply with legal land use requirements, including institutional controls.
“It’s a compelling and efficient approach when these things are married together.”