Fragility, Conflict & Security: A battle for land: how EO is protecting property rights in Ukraine
- Russia’s war against Ukraine has triggered widespread land insecurity. Amid military occupation and displacement, property rights are under threat across contested regions.
- To support land administration in conflict-affected Ukraine, ESA’s Global Development Assistance (GDA) Fragility, Conflict and Security team partnered with the World Bank to assess the impact of land grabbing on ownership security.
- Through satellite Earth Observation (EO), the GDA team mapped looting, damage and harvest delays, offering critical insights for humanitarian actors, national authorities and development partners.
Location
Ukraine
Institutions
- Russia’s war against Ukraine has triggered widespread land insecurity. Amid military occupation and displacement, property rights are under threat across contested regions.
- To support land administration in conflict-affected Ukraine, ESA’s Global Development Assistance (GDA) Fragility, Conflict and Security team partnered with the World Bank to assess the impact of land grabbing on ownership security.
- Through satellite Earth Observation (EO), the GDA team mapped looting, damage and harvest delays, offering critical insights for humanitarian actors, national authorities and development partners.
Location
Ukraine
Institutions
In the eastern oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk, EO-based monitoring revealed a dramatic decline in nightlight intensity between 2022 and 2023, signalling infrastructure breakdown and economic collapse.
These insights support situational awareness and can inform land administration recovery in formerly occupied areas.
Location
Ukraine
Institutions
In the eastern oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk, EO-based monitoring revealed a dramatic decline in nightlight intensity between 2022 and 2023, signalling infrastructure breakdown and economic collapse.
These insights support situational awareness and can inform land administration recovery in formerly occupied areas.
Location
Ukraine
Institutions
In Kherson, satellite Earth Observation was combined with media analytics and population exposure models to monitor looting activity and land insecurity.
Through ESA’s GDA Fragility, Conflict and Security partnership, high-frequency reporting data, such as the graph below, showed a sharp rise in looting and land-grabbing mentions during the occupation phase in 2022, followed by a significant drop after Ukraine’s military counteroffensive in late 2022.
These patterns were confirmed with EO-based mapping, offering decision-makers an evidence-based view of where risks to property and tenure were greatest.
Mentions of “Land Grabbing” and “Looting” in relation to Kherson, peaking in late 2022 before declining in early 2023. Source: HENSOLDT Analytics.
Location
Ukraine
Institutions
In Kherson, satellite Earth Observation was combined with media analytics and population exposure models to monitor looting activity and land insecurity.
Through ESA’s GDA Fragility, Conflict and Security partnership, high-frequency reporting data, such as the graph below, showed a sharp rise in looting and land-grabbing mentions during the occupation phase in 2022, followed by a significant drop after Ukraine’s military counteroffensive in late 2022.
These patterns were confirmed with EO-based mapping, offering decision-makers an evidence-based view of where risks to property and tenure were greatest.
Mentions of “Land Grabbing” and “Looting” in relation to Kherson, peaking in late 2022 before declining in early 2023. Source: HENSOLDT Analytics.
Location
Ukraine
Institutions
High-resolution imagery over Bakhmut revealed extensive physical damage. By mid-2023, EO-derived damage classifications showed that over one-third of urban structures had been destroyed or severely compromised.
These data support ground-truthing, inform humanitarian response and may underpin future post-conflict reconstruction efforts.
Location
Ukraine
Institutions
High-resolution imagery over Bakhmut revealed extensive physical damage. By mid-2023, EO-derived damage classifications showed that over one-third of urban structures had been destroyed or severely compromised.
These data support ground-truthing, inform humanitarian response and may underpin future post-conflict reconstruction efforts.
Location
Ukraine
Institutions
EO impact key takeaways
- Earth Observation provides a neutral, evidence-based layer for monitoring land dynamics in fragile and contested areas.
- The Ukraine pilot, developed under ESA’s Global Development Assistance programme, has supported development actors, including the World Bank, by making EO-derived insights available for land monitoring, tenure protection and early recovery planning.
- ESA’s GDA initiative continues to support the uptake of scalable EO services by global development partners, including international institutions operating in post-conflict environments.
Continue scrolling to explore more stories
In partnership with
On behalf of
