BMT Cordah recently completed a remote sensing project in Uganda, using Landsat TM7 satellite imagery.  The study was completed for a London-based oil & gas client who were in the early stages of planning an onshore seismic survey within a remote field location.  Considerable uncertainty was associated with the presence of local and regional settlement communities, road types and other available infrastructure.  

BMT Cordah recommended the use of satellite imagery as a fast-assessment tool that could easily identify the following features:

• Type and distribution of road infrastructure.
• Distribution of surface water features and areas of dense vegetation.
• Distribution of population settlements and agricultural areas.
• Areas characterised by swampy conditions during the rainy season.

An example of the image used using a false-colour spectrum is given below:



The software used to analyse the Landsat TM 7 imagery was ENVI.  ENVI is an excellent software solution to rapidly extract information from geospatial imagery. Within the software package, a series of classification tools may be used to map-out a spectral summary of the imagery being assessed.  During the Ugandan project, a spectral library of responses were developed to distinguish between specific features.  

An example of the spectral library developed during the study is provided below:

 

 

BMT Cordah are now placing into their proposals satellite imagery components so that onshore and coastal environmental and social sensitivities can be mapped and incorporated into the wider project GIS.  Such tools have also been used to map-out sensitive areas of the Libyan desert that were assessed under a different project (see separate Case Study).

In summary, the use of satellite imagery for oil and gas projects is just one example where BMT Cordah combined its environmental and social expertise with visualisation technologies.  Such tools ensure that both environmental and social receptors can be assessed rapidly for additional investigation, where required, and that support to wider logistics functions can be built-into our work, as appropriate.