The permitting, monitoring, and enforcement working group, led by Ken Markowitz, a member of the ELIS team and president of EarthPace, focused on determining the ways to use remote sensing data to improve decision-making. The group evaluated numerous applications for remote sensing technology, many of which are already in use. Decision makers may apply the technologies to assess ecosystem health, prioritize sites for inspections, monitor the spread of algal blooms and invasive species, track oil spills and other pollutant plumes, and otherwise administer domestic and international laws.
The ability to combine remote sensing with computer simulation modeling is an essential tool for whole system analyses, needed for applications ranging from the large scale such as climate change modeling to smaller scale projects like flood level projections. Scientists may also use remote sensing, not only to forecast weather events, but also to predict future impacts from the release of alien compounds into the environment.
Remote sensing technology has considerable potential for use as a legal enforcement tool. Remote sensing can be used as a starting point to bring a case, whether or not the data is admitted as evidence. For example, an inspector trying to decide which of 10 facilities to inspect during a given year may use remote sensing as a screening tool. Remote sensing may also aid enforcement attorneys trying to prove illegal discharge of pollutants in a court. Remotely sensed imagery is hot ammunition to bring cases against polluters, especially non-point source pollution. Remote sensing should be integrated into permitting processes as an effective way to monitor and verify compliance. Among the problems with the use of remote sensing identified by the group, one of the biggest problems was the communication gap between the scientists developing the technology and the user groups. Although scientists are looking for applications for the technology and environmental decision makers would like to be able to use the data, the time and investment required to find what technology is available to match the demand is a large deterrent, even excluding factors such as cost, lack of acceptance and inconsistent data formats.
The group also discussed pieces that were vitally needed before developing new applications to solve information management problems. The use of remote sensing must be discussed, not only between the scientists who are developing the tools and the decision-makers who can create the applications to use the data in novel ways, but in the public opinion, in universities, in legislative and rulemaking bodies, and in local and federal agencies. Workshops addressing specific issues such as remote sensing application is oil spill resources or wetlands management bring together diffuse sources of information should be encouraged and publicized.