SCOPE › Monitor construction sites from space
Monitor construction sites from space
Site visits are expensive and slow, and a monthly photo tells you nothing you can measure. SCOPE compares satellite imagery of your site from two periods and reports the area that changed, roughly when, and how confident it is — for any site on Earth, without sending anybody there.
A real example
Navi Mumbai International Airport, India
Between Nov 2018 – Feb 2019 and Nov 2024 – Feb 2025, SCOPE measured 1,171 hectares of change as hills and mangrove were levelled for runways and terminals.
Who uses this
How SCOPE measures it
- Sentinel-2 optical imagery at 10 m. Every usable image in each period is cloud-masked and combined, so one bad day cannot create a false result.
- Sentinel-1 radar as an independent check. Radar is unaffected by cloud, so a change confirmed by both sensors is far more trustworthy than one seen in a single optical image.
- The same season in earlier years. Before anything is called unusual, SCOPE checks what that place normally does at that time of year.
- A confidence and a date bracket per area, plus a PDF, GeoJSON and CSV you can take to a surveyor, an insurer or a court.
What it will not do
SCOPE measures change; it does not confirm who caused it. Areas under a hectare are below what 10 m pixels can resolve. Persistent cloud limits the optical view, and the report says when that happened rather than hiding it. On its own published benchmark it found the change at 39 of 41 recorded events, raised no false alarms across 27 desert and undisturbed-forest control sites, and did flag change at city-centre controls — because cities genuinely change.
Questions
How often can a construction site be checked?
Sentinel-2 passes over every point on Earth every five days, and Sentinel-1 radar every six to twelve days. A meaningful progress comparison usually needs two to four weeks between windows.
What size of site does this work for?
About one hectare (2.5 acres) and up. Satellite pixels are 10 m across, so a single house plot is smaller than a few pixels and cannot carry reliable statistics.
Does it work through cloud?
Sentinel-1 radar sees through cloud and is used as an independent check, so a monsoon month still produces a result — with the optical detail marked as missing where it was cloudy.
Try it on a place you already know
If SCOPE is right about somewhere you know well, you can trust it somewhere you do not. 5 scans a day, free, no card.