Hatfield’s innovative approach to using satellite imagery for monitoring the impact of mining development was featured as the cover story in the September 2007 edition of the Oilsands Review. This leading industry publication serves regional and international audiences from Fort McMurray, Alberta to Beijing, China.
Since 2005, Hatfield has been working with Shell Canada Ltd. and their affiliate Albian Sands Energy Inc. (Shell/Albian) to pilot satellite imagery applications to support sustainable development and corporate sustainable development reporting.
Through funding provided by the European Space Agency, a time-series of satellite imagery were used to provide information on development of oil sands mine surface lease areas, enabling annual reporting of mine activity footprint, including impacts on vegetation habitat. The methods demonstrated under the project can also be used to quantify the reclamation of terrestrial vegetation following disturbance.
Darrell Martindale, Manager of Environment and Regulatory Compliance with Albian Sands Energy was quoted in the article as saying:
“Using [satelite imagery] for sustainable development is a novel approach,” he says, adding that in order to participate in the project, the work had to be showcased in a multinational company’s annual sustainable development report.
The services piloted in the project underwent a formal independent audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Sustainable Asset Management Group, to ensure that the results are objectively quantified. With this assurance in place, it was possible for the results of the project to be included in Shell Canada’s 2006 Corporate Sustainable Development Report (PDF)
Hatfield plans to expand the results of this project to other oil industry leaders in the Alberta Oil Sands Region.
Contact Wade Gibbons, Partner and Senior Environmental Scientist at 604-926-3261 for further information.
To access the full Oil Sands Review article, click here.
Hatfield Consultants (Hatfield), established in 1974, is a Canadian environmental consulting company that has undertaken over 1,300 projects in North and South America, Asia, Europe and Africa. Hatfield provides services in the areas of environmental assessment and monitoring, contaminant monitoring, GIS and remote sensing, environmental information systems, aquatic ecology, and biodiversity assessments.
