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Evaluation ViewAttendees 15

Remote Sensing: The Eye in the Sky Difference Maker in Engineering Expert Driven Litigation

Wednesday, July 10, 2024
7:30 AM - 8:30 AM PDT
Location: Pender Island
CLE: 1.0 Credit Hours
CLE/Business/General Meetings
You may have heard of remote sensing…the eye in the sky that collects huge quantities of data. Technically, remote sensing refers to technologies for gathering visual information or other data about a site from the air or from space. These tools have rapidly evolved in the last decade but their use in litigation within the industry has significantly lagged.

In this presentation, remote sensing tools will be briefly introduced for how they are commonly used in construction. Next, the audience will learn how these tools can and have been innovatively used in litigation. The emphasis is on how these tools save significant consultant fees to collect valuable data, which is commonly perishable at a construction site, in a cost effective manner. The presentation will provide examples of how this tool has been used in actual litigation cases.

At the end of the presentation, the audience will be aware of the tremendous competitive advantage and economical value of remote sensing and be able to identify those circumstances in their projects where this data may also be a difference maker.

Learning Objectives:

  • Remote sensing is the process of detecting and monitoring the physical characteristics of an area, object, or phenomena without making physical contact with the area or object. Remote-sensing tools are useful when controversies arise over certain construction event(s) or disputes regarding structure collapses, accidents, disputes involving ground or structure movement, etc.
  • Two principal remote-sensing technologies are discussed in this presentation: laser and radar. The platforms for laser technologies are grouped into two main categories: airborne laser scanning (ALS) and terrestrial laser scanning (TLS). Lasers are a highly accurate tool to detect objects in real space with a high level of precision and accuracy. Lasers are either airborne or terrestrial. One example of a laser system is Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR). LiDAR uses a transmitter, mounted on an airplane, helicopter, drone, or tripod to send out laser pulses onto a surface and measure the time it takes for the signal to return to the transmitter. The collected data is compiled with GPS data and processed to create a digital representation of the scanned area. Radar data is increasingly being used to monitor construction and its effects on nearby environs. The instrument platform used to collect radar data for these purposes is typically a satellite. Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) is a remote-sensing technology that utilizes radar pulses for detection and characterization of target displacements over time, with sub centimeter precision and accuracy.
  • Remote-sensing data can be a powerful tool for an expert. The ability to collect large amounts of detailed data over a vast area provides a basis for an expert to opine about changed conditions, earth movement, or failure analysis in a manner that would be extraordinarily difficult or impossible without remote sensing. A qualified, skilled expert can also use remote-sensing data as a powerful demonstrative. Like any tool, remote sensing data and its limitations must be well understood by the technical expert in its application to the issue at hand and by the lawyer when seeking admissibility to the legal standards applicable at that time and jurisdiction and presenting to the trier of fact.