Hatfield is working with French Earth Observation specialist ACRI on applying satellite data to CSD practices and reporting in this sector, with industrial users being Shell Canada Ltd and affiliated company Albian Sands Energy Inc.
These trials will apply in particular to freshwater, biodiversity and forests in the Muskeg and Athabasca River basins, with the proposed services being developed envisaged as being sufficiently general to also have potential in other business markets, either for Shell or other multinational clients. The services will undergo independent audits by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Sustainability Asset Management Group for incorporation into sustainability indices including the Dow Jones.
"The dominant focus is using satellite data to help quantify habitat change in various ways, such as looking at habitat fragmentation," explained Tom Boivin of the Hatfield Group. "We will gather baseline information by getting satellite data from the present - or if available the past to understand how a habitat may be influenced by the oil sands operations.
"The habitat in that area is largely boreal forest and a fair amount of wetlands, which is a habitat type which can potentially be quite well monitored by using Earth Observation services such as radar sensors. Our partner companies Shell and Albian hope that things like optical and radar satellite imagery will provide better information more cost effectively than current methods of interpreting aerial photography with associated ground-truthing."
EOMD, ESA and sustainable development
ESA's EOMD Programme is aimed at strengthening European and Canadian capacities for the provision of geo-information services based mainly on Earth Observation data. To find out more about using Earth Observation for CSD assessment and r
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Contact: Mariangela D'Acunto
mariangela.dacunto@esa.int
39-069-418-0856
European Space Agency
7-Feb-2006