# Construction progress monitoring with satellite imagery Satellite imagery can track construction progress, especially on large sites, works spread over many sites and remote locations. Comparing successive images shows indicators such as cranes being set up or removed, construction materials, trucks and new buildings. Owners and lenders receive regular information without being on site, and inspections can be planned where they are needed. ## Who needs it Construction companies see the progress of their own work. Infrastructure owners and financing institutions usually cannot be present on site during the whole construction phase, yet they need regular and reliable information about progress to make sound decisions [2]. Satellite progress monitoring is most relevant to large construction sites such as gigafactories and airports, to works spread over many sites with many actors, such as new metro lines and stations, and to construction in remote locations [2]. ## How it works The method is change detection. Successive satellite images of the same site are compared, and the differences are read as indicators of progress: cranes set up or removed, construction materials and waste on site, trucks, and new buildings [2]. EUSPA describes this as monitoring, in near real time, of the progress anywhere on the site [1]. Artificial intelligence helps automate this work. Change detection based on pattern recognition and object characterisation is key to infrastructure management, and machine learning helps process the growing volume of satellite data [2]. How AI turns images into information is the topic of our use case on [analysing satellite imagery with AI](https://leto.space/use-cases/ai-imagery-analysis/). Two related techniques complement progress monitoring. Radar interferometry can monitor ground deformation in the vicinity of a construction site [1]; see [monitoring ground motion with InSAR](https://leto.space/use-cases/ground-motion-insar/). On site, GNSS feeds building information models with high-accuracy positions of the construction assets [1]. ## Which data and satellites | Data | What it shows | Example | | ----------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- | | Very high resolution optical images | Objects on site: cranes, materials, trucks, new buildings | Commercial missions | | High resolution optical images | Larger changes across the site | Copernicus Sentinel-2, 10 m, revisit five days | | Radar images | Acquisitions through clouds and at night | Copernicus Sentinel-1 and commercial radar missions | Very high resolution and frequently updated images are what makes satellite progress monitoring possible, and EUSPA counts both optical and radar images among them [2]. Sentinel-2 images have a resolution of 10 m and a revisit time of five days [3]. **Figure:** Four satellite images of the same area in western Graz, labelled 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2025. Green fields in 2017 become bright bare ground in 2019 and 2021; in 2025 new building blocks stand on the same area. The Reininghaus neighbourhood in western Graz in four Copernicus Sentinel-2 images of 4 August 2017, 30 June 2019, 14 June 2021 and 1 September 2025. Each frame covers about 2 by 2 km. At 10 m resolution the frames show the change across the area, from fields to bare ground to new buildings, but not single objects such as cranes or trucks. Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2025, processed by LETO SPACE. Data accessed through the Sentinel-2 collection maintained by Element 84 on AWS Open Data. [6] ## What you get - a time series of images for each site, so that progress can be followed from one acquisition to the next - progress indicators per site, such as the presence of cranes or new building outlines [2] - for works spread over many sites, the same indicators for every site in one view - better planned site inspections: the information helps optimise inspections, reduce their cost and improve worker safety [2] ## Limits **Limits** - **Only what is visible from above:** A satellite sees the site from above. Work inside buildings, the quality of the work and its acceptance remain tasks for people on site. - **Clouds hide optical images:** Optical satellites cannot see through clouds; radar satellites such as Sentinel-1 can \[4]. A service that relies on optical images alone may miss a planned reporting date. - **Free images show only larger changes:** Indicators such as cranes, materials and trucks rely on very high resolution images \[2]. A service built only on free 10 m Sentinel-2 images \[3] shows larger changes across the site, not single objects. ## How we help Progress monitoring is useful when it feeds a decision, for example a payment milestone, a lender's report or a programme review. In a [strategy engagement](https://leto.space/consulting/strategy/) we check whether satellite data answer your question better than the reports you already receive. We then write the requirements: indicators, image resolution, reporting interval and delivery format. [More on requirements and procurement](https://leto.space/consulting/procurement/) The marketplace on [Spacegraph](https://leto.space/spacegraph/), our discovery platform, has a use-case category for site and construction monitoring. ## Related use cases - [Monitoring ground motion with InSAR](https://leto.space/use-cases/ground-motion-insar/): How radar satellites measure millimetre movement of the ground. - [Machine guidance and surveying with GNSS](https://leto.space/use-cases/gnss-machine-guidance/): Satellite positioning for construction machines and surveying. - [Construction and real estate](https://leto.space/industries/construction-and-real-estate/): All use cases for construction, infrastructure and real estate. ## Frequently asked questions ### Which image resolution do we need? It depends on the indicator. Copernicus Sentinel-2 images are free [5] and have a resolution of 10 m [3], which shows larger changes across a site rather than single objects. Indicators such as cranes, materials and trucks are tracked with very high resolution images, which are what makes satellite progress monitoring possible [2]. The requirements should name the smallest object you need to see. ### How often can we get an image of our site? Sentinel-2 has a revisit time of five days [3]; for very high resolution images, the frequency depends on the mission you buy from. Optical images need a clear sky, while radar images, for example from Sentinel-1, are also available through clouds and at night [4]. Set the reporting interval by the decision the information supports, for example a monthly payment milestone. ### How do we start a pilot? Choose one project with several sites or one large site, and define the indicators that matter for your decision, such as the start of earthworks or the completion of a building shell. Then compare what the images show with your site reports. Our [consulting overview](https://leto.space/consulting/) shows the path from the problem to operation. ## Sources 1. [EU Space Market Report 2026, Issue 1, EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), 2026-05-26](https://www.euspa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/EU_Space_Market_Report_2026.pdf) 2. [EUSPA EO and GNSS Market Report, Issue 2, 2024, EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), 2024](https://www.euspa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/external/publications/euspa_market_report_2024.pdf) 3. [Sentinel-2 (mission page), European Space Agency (ESA), accessed 2026-10-06](https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-2) 4. [Sentinel-1 mission… did you know?, European Space Agency (ESA), 2025-11-03](https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-1/Sentinel-1_mission_did_you_know) 5. [Copernicus, European Commission, DG Defence Industry and Space (EU Space portal), accessed 2026-10-07](https://eu-space.europa.eu/earth-observation/copernicus) 6. [Copernicus Sentinel-2 Level-2A scenes of tile 33TWN, 4 August 2017, 30 June 2019, 14 June 2021 and 1 September 2025, Copernicus Sentinel data (European Union, ESA), Sentinel-2 Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFFs maintained by Element 84 on AWS Open Data, accessed 2026-10-08](https://earth-search.aws.element84.com/v1/collections/sentinel-2-l2a/items/S2B_33TWN_20170804_0_L2A) Page: