Monitoring the development of large infrastructure projects

By 2016, over 500 Syrian cultural heritage sites were damaged in the ongoing civil war. The UKSA-backed Cultural Heritage Protection Service uses satellite EO imagery to monitor cultural heritage sites in the Middle East and North Africa region, allowing for regular reporting on historic events and damages.

Source: UNITAR

Cultural property is of great importance for humanity and cultural heritage sites in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions are being deliberately targeted in recent armed conflicts, resulting in damage, looting and in some cases total destruction. In addition, natural heritage sites nowadays are under constant myriad of threats ranging from climate change, construction of infrastructure and housing to mining and quarrying. Placing cultural heritage sites under regular monitoring through the use of satellite Earth observation (EO) imagery to produce periodic reports will help document historic events and damages, which will be very important in view of justice, and possible recovery, reconstruction and determent. Regular monitoring of sites can also help in devising preventive conservation measures and set risk management mechanisms as a documentation tool of urban and territorial modifications through time.