Rokos, Demetrius 
used to delineate spatial legislation information on maps has been developed. For this purpose, three steps have been 
considered: 
e the categorization of National Environmental Legislation in different sets and subsets of laws/decrees/rules; 
e the definition of separate stages in the implementation of each legal decision making process and the indication in 
which of them and how Earth Observation data could be integrated; and 
e the definition of the appropriate legislation map nomenclature. 
From the technical point of view, an accurate, reliable and efficient Environmental Legislation Compliance Map, in 
order to cover the requirements of the judiciary procedures for conforming to environmental laws and regulations, 
should comply with the following: 
e its scale should be the optimum one for the specific case, 
e it should contain the maximum possible and appropriate for the specific case metrical and qualitative information, 
e it should be the most recent one, 
e it should facilitate, in the future, its comparison and/or correlation with similar maps of the same area produced on 
previous dates, 
it should contain a very clear legend understandable by Judges and citizens, 
it should contain the points, lines, surfaces, space segments, as well as the necessary specific "thematic" and "time" 
information which is critical in judging the specific case, 
e itshould clearly show similarities and differences in shapes, measures, patterns, textures, both in their horizontal and 
vertical geodetic position (x,y,z), in order to assist judges in documenting their judgements and decisions, and the 
administration in carrying out the necessary monitoring of Environmental Law Enforcement. 
e it should be accurately and appropriately comparable with the existing topographic and land use/cover maps of the 
same areas, at the same scale. 
Implementation of environmental legislation using EO data is not operationally satisfactory, due to the lack of 
standardization of methodologies and tools for controlling and monitoring compliance with laws, directives, and 
guidelines governing human beings' interactions with Environment. Although Remote Sensing methodologies and 
techniques have been proved a very useful tool for assessing and monitoring the natural and socioeconomic 
environment, the use of Earth Observation data as evidence material in judicial and administrative procedures is 
relatively sparse. If Earth Observation data are to be used in any legal process associated with the implementation of 
environmental legislation, the question arises as to what standards of data (or standards of evidence) will be necessary 
to demonstrate and verify the implementation or non implementation of environmental law (APERTURE 19982, 
1998b). 
Towards this direction, European Commission funded the research project APERTURE (ENV4-CT97-437) which 
mainly aims to develop a methodology, based on Earth Observation data analysis, to map and characterize 
environmentally sensitive areas in Europe according to International, European and National Environmental Legislation 
by: 
e proposing an interdisciplinary legislation and remote sensing nomenclature, 
e compiling a detailed database of land-use in such areas, using merged very high spatial resolution and high spatial 
resolution Earth Observation (EO) data, 
developing quantitative measures of changes occurred in forest and water management over a period of time, 
developing a common approach between environmental lawyers and scientists in the drawing up of environmental 
law related to land-use, 
e applying visualization techniques to these environmentally sensitive areas. 
National, Regional and Local Authorities, as well as Governments, will directly use this methodology to assess 
environmental impacts at national, regional and local level. 
The final product of this methodology is the Environmental Legislation Compliance Map (ELCM). ELCM is defined as 
a map derived from specific and appropriate integration and processing of Earth Observation and geographic data, 
identifying the areas conditioned by the application of environmental legislation, as well as the location of potential 
infringements. It serves as a management tool for the end user and as an evidence tool for judicial and administrative 
procedures. Within the APERTURE framework, four indicative ELCMs, corresponding to four national case studies 
located in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece respectively, were to be produced and submitted to moot (i.e. simulated) 
court proceedings. 
. This paper focuses on the Greek case study, which concerns the analysis of the Greek Forest Law and the procedure for 
the implementation of the respective ELCM. In the second chapter, the appropriate methodology and definitions 
required for the production of an ELCM, are outlined, while chapters 3-5 refer to the Greek Forest Law case. 
  
1268 International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXIII, Part B7. Amsterdam 2000.