Environmental crime is growing at annual rates of 5% to 7% globally. Countering environmental crime is complex as it is often perpetrated by criminal organizations operating across borders. It also spans a broad range of activities, such as illegal waste management and shipment, illegal logging and trade in timber, illegal water abstraction, pollution, habitats destruction and wildlife trafficking.
Combatting environmental crime often requires international cooperation, not only to roll up international networks, put also to account for differing legal frameworks, enforcement mechanisms, and priorities among countries. The European Union recently adopted a new directive to improve the effectiveness of criminal law enforcement and help achieve European Green Deal objectives by fighting against the most serious environmental offences.
Detecting, investigating, and prosecuting environmental crime require high-quality documentation and evidence. New technologies and methods to detect and analyze environmental changes can play a key role here. The last years have witnessed transformative developments in Earth Observation, particularly from satellite-based platforms, leading to data streams of increased spatial, spectral, and temporal detail. Earth Observation-based intelligence provides obvious benefits to environmental crime investigations greatly strengthening monitoring and inspection capacity. However, it also brings particular challenges such as concerns about data privacy, data quality and availability issues, as well as legal constraints related to the admissibility of geospatial-based evidence in court.
Share the workshop on
European Space Agency and the JRC role
This workshop is a joint initiative of ESA and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission to foster a greater uptake of Earth Observation technology in environmental compliance assurance.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has been at the forefront of exploring new capabilities to integrate EO-derived information more systematically into environmental crime investigations. The aim is to improve the identification of illegal activities and ensure the effective incorporation of EO information into intelligence models used by investigative teams, leveraging key technologies and innovative processing techniques. The effort contributes to maintaining Europe’s international leadership in ensuring safety and security for citizens, and fostering enhanced regional and international cooperation on security priorities.
The Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission provides independent evidence and knowledge to ground European policy in science. The European Commission aims to step up the implementation and enforcement of EU environmental legislation. To help achieve this, the JRC researches and supports the use of geospatial intelligence in environmental compliance assurance. The Knowledge Centre on Earth Observation at the JRC is conducting a deep dive assessment on the use of Earth Observation for Compliance Assurance across various EU policy sectors.
Objectives
The workshop aims to:
Identify and review methods enabled by geospatial data sources, and particularly Earth Observation, to support better detection and characterization of environmental crimes and their consequences.
Enhance awareness of the latest developments in geospatial and open source intelligence in the context of multidisciplinary evidence collection to assure environmental compliance.
Identify gaps in administrative capacity or expertise among enforcement authorities.
Collect insights on priority areas to improve the integration of EO capabilities in intelligence workflows and protocols for environmental crime investigations.
Aligning with stakeholders’ agenda, highlight the importance of developing crime-countering strategies that are evidence-based and data-driven, addressing both the root causes of crime and its environmental, societal and economic dimensions.
Inform the definition of requirements for Earth Observation and other geospatial products and services supporting environmental crime investigations.
Outline a way forward to implement new solutions for a wider uptake of EO into investigations of environmental crimes within the ESA-JRC cooperation activities.
Target Audience
This workshop is intended for researchers, governmental and non-governmental organizations, investigative teams, legal bodies, and international agencies that develop or use Earth Observation for environmental compliance assurance, and particularly enforcement activities. The workshop will be hosted by the ESA at ESRIN, Frascati (Italy), as an in-person meeting, with the possibility to be connected remotely
Possible participants:
International organizations
National police forces, prosecutors, judges, inspectors and their networks
Environmental monitoring or protection agencies and the Earth Observation or Space agencies they work with
NGOs
Industries and research centers working in the area of the workshop
The workshop will be hosted at the ESA – ESRIN, Frascati (Italy), as an in-person meeting, with the possibility to follow the workshop remotely.
Thematic Areas
The workshop will be structured around the main aspects of environmental compliance assurance : promotion, monitoring, enforcement, and rehabilitation. Abstracts should be submitted indicating one of these four areas.
Promote
EO technology serves as a powerful tool for raising businesses’ and duty-holders’ awareness of their compliance with environmental regulations by offering insights into the impact of their operations on the environment. For instance, EO data can help assess greenhouse gas emissions, land usage, water pollution levels, resources exploitation. This EO-derived data facilitates informed decision-making for running environmentally compliant operations. Presentations on EO-driven ‘preventive’ measures should be submitted within this thematic area.
Monitor
Space technology can help assess and detect non-compliance with environmental regulations. Various types of sensors deployed in space offer extensive monitoring capabilities. For instance, hyperspectral sensors can be used to measure atmospheric pollution, thermal infrared sensors to identify deforestation fires, optical sensors to detect wildlife poaching, and SAR sensors to track illegal fishing activities and oil spills, among others. Such data can provide solid evidence for enforcement in inspections, investigations, examination of public complaints. Presentations on EO-enabled ‘diagnostics’ should be submitted within this thematic area.
Enforce
Enforcement provides the means to stopping non-compliance with environmental rules, applying sanctions, and repairing environmental damage. It covers, amongst other things, official warnings, cease-and-desist orders, administrative or criminal proceedings, application of sanctions, and demands to take remedial action. Presentations on EO-backed ‘corrective’ measures should be submitted within this thematic area.
Rehabilitate
Damage rectification required by enforcement actions can be monitored using EO data. Reduced pollutant emission levels, reforestation and the cleanup of oil spills can be analysed through EO. Presentations on EO-supported ‘remedial’ measures should be submitted within this thematic area.
Abstract Submission
The Abstract submission interface is now closed! The abstract submission was extended until the 21st of April 2024 at 23:59 (CET). Notifications to the authors of the acceptance of their submissions will be done by the 15th of May 2024.
Schedule and Deadlines
Abstract submission opening
05 February 2024
Abstract submission closing
21 April 2024
Notification of acceptance
15 May 2024
Issue of Preliminary Programme
15 May 2024
Registration Opening
May 2024
Issue of Final Programme
at the workshop
Workshop
11 – 12 June 2024
Programme Committee
Pieter Beck
JRC
Corentin Bolyn
JRC
Gordon Campbell
European Space Agency – ESA
Giovanni Caudullo
JRC
Maria Michela Corvino
European Space Agency – ESA
Federico Filipponi
CNR, IT
Rui Meneses
JRC
Elena Morando
European Space Agency – ESA
Kenji Ose
JRC
Maiken Ristmae
European Space Agency – ESA
Zoltan Szantoi
European Space Agency – ESA
Thibault Taillade
European Space Agency – ESA
Alessandra Tassa
European Space Agency – ESA
Christelle Vancutsem
JRC
Venue
Largo Galielio Galilei n. 1 00044 Frascati, Italy
Contact info
For information regarding the submissions, author instructions, scientific committee related inquiries please contact
