Space technologies for monitoring health and environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing
Authors: Farhan M Asrar, Annie Hui Wen, S Ali Nasseri, Petros C Dinas, Cory Newman, Angie Bukley, Kevin Crist, Dennis Irwin
Journal: The Lancet Planetary Health (2018)

The world continues to depend on fossil fuels, increasing consumption despite increased awareness of renewable options and measures to curb its use. The rising demand for energy has led many countries to rely on hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas. With the oil and gas extraction industries accounting for more than 1·7% of the US gross domestic product, such drilling activities are believed to improve national and local economies through job creation. This economic growth has acted as a great incentive for private companies to enter hydraulic fracturing operations. Although chemicals identified at these drilling operations are known to have health and climate change implications, there is still much debate about the effect of hydraulic fracturing on public health and the environment. Over 600 chemicals have been identified from drilling activity in the USA, 75% of which might pose a health risk to the skin and eyes; 40% to the nervous, immune, and cardiovascular systems; and 25% might increase the risk of cancer.1Colborn T Kwiatkowski C Schultz K Bachran M Natural gas operations from a public health perspective.Hum Ecol Risk Asses. 2011; 17: 1039-1056Crossref Scopus (347) Google Scholar In general, detailed information about chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing operations is usually not available as jurisdictions do not oblige companies to report it. Evidence shows that hydraulic fracturing contaminates water sources because of surface spills and wastewater disposal,2Jackson RB Vengosh A Carey JW et al.The environmental costs and benefits of fracking.Annu RevEnviron Resour. 2014; 39: 327-362Crossref Scopus (297) Google Scholar increases greenhouse gas emissions,3Roy AA Adams PJ Robinson AL Air pollutant emissions from the development, production, and processing of Marcellus Shale natural gas.J Air Waste Manag Assoc. 2014; 64: 19-37Crossref PubMed Scopus (98) Google Scholar might be linked with an increase in earthquakes,4Xuewei B Eaton DW Fault activation by hydraulic fracturing in western Canada.Science. 2016; 354: 1406-1409Crossref Scopus (366) Google Scholar and has a health-related effect because lower-than-average birthweights were observed in areas within a 3 km radius of hydraulic fracturing sites.5Currie J Greenstone M Meckel K Hydraulic fracturing and infant health: new evidence from Pennsylvania.Sci Adv. 2017; 3: e1603021Crossref PubMed Scopus (94) Google Scholar Public opinion about hydraulic fracturing operations is mixed because of the scarcity of trustworthy information about this topic. An article in The Guardian highlighted the public's fears about the pollution that hydraulic fracturing could cause given the recent development of this industry in Scotland.6The GuardianUK fracking to begin in earnest in 2018 after tough year for industry.https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/25/fracking-start-2018-shale-gas-uk-industry-protestsDate: Dec 25, 2017Date accessed: January 25, 2018Google Scholar Although hydraulic fracturing could supply the UK with gas for 25 years, public protests are common because of the potential environmental pollution and public health issues it could cause.6The GuardianUK fracking to begin in earnest in 2018 after tough year for industry.https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/25/fracking-start-2018-shale-gas-uk-industry-protestsDate: Dec 25, 2017Date accessed: January 25, 2018Google Scholar Similar concerns are increasing in the UK, EU, USA, and Canada. Although organisations such as the International Energy Agency try to help share knowledge with the international community about policies and regulations pertaining to these operations, most countries rely on national regulatory frameworks. In this light, Public Health England recommends the need for baseline environmental monitoring to assess the effect of hydraulic fracturing on public health and the need for effective monitoring throughout development, production, and post-production.7Public Health EnglandShale gas extraction: review of the potential public health impacts of exposures to chemical and radioactive pollutants (draft for comment).https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/shale-gas-extraction-review-of-the-potential-public-health-impacts-of-exposures-to-chemical-and-radioactive-pollutants-draft-for-commentDate: Oct 30, 2013Date accessed: May 16, 2017Google Scholar There is a need to gather more data about the public health and environmental effect of hydraulic fracturing, to help policy-makers make more informed decisions about the matter. Space assets have already had a role in environmental monitoring and have also been used in areas of health care for disaster management,8Dinas PC Mueller C Clark N et al.Innovative methods for the benefit of public health using space technologies for disaster response.Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2015; 9: 319-328Crossref PubMed Scopus (12) Google Scholar public health emergencies, and infectious disease outbreaks.9Asrar FM Asrar S Clark JB et al.Help from above: outer space and the fight against Ebola.Lancet Infect Dis. 2015; 15: 873-875Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (10) Google Scholar Currently, several satellites, including GOSAT (Japan), Aura (USA), MetOp (Europe), and Sentinel 4 and 5 (Europe), monitor environmental pollutants and elements. These satellites might play a role in monitoring pollutants of hydraulic fracturing activities because of their ability to measure pollutants such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and particulate matters 2·5 and 10. A report10Tracking FrackingInternational Space University Team Project report. Space Studies Program 2015. International Space University.Available from https://isulibrary.isunet.edu/opac/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=9450Date: 2015Date accessed: May 16, 2017Google Scholar from the Space Studies Program of the International Space University, recommended a remote sensing multiplatform system to address the challenge of monitoring and quantifying the emissions from hydraulic fracturing sites (figure). The findings from this report suggest that in the short term (0–2 years) data from existing space, airborne, and ground air pollution monitoring systems can be utilised to create a multiplatform monitoring system for hydraulic fracturing operations. In the medium term (2–10 years), the system will be supplemented with high-resolution air pollution monitoring sensors on geostationary orbit satellites, such as the TEMPO satellite, and future instruments to measure geostationary orbit-coastal and air pollution events. In the long-term (10+ years), the performance of present satellite monitoring systems will advance and include high spatial and temporal resolution remote-sensing satellite systems that will achieve global coverage and all hydraulic fracturing sites could be monitored by the satellite-based system. Frequent, high-resolution monitoring of air pollution will allow organisations to reduce health and environmental threats where necessary. This satellite-based monitoring will eventually provide a global solution for monitoring hydraulic fracturing activities. Nowadays, it is feasible to monitor environmental pollutants by using a combination of methods. The aggregation of data over time will enable scientists to better understand the underlying mechanisms behind the impact of hydraulic fracturing on public health and the environment. This might enable policy-makers to form regulations for proper and safe hydraulic fracturing activities that will eventually benefit the global economy and not threat global health and the environment. We declare no competing interests. FMA, AHW, SAN, CN, and PD contributed equally and are joint first authors. We would like to acknowledge the help and support of Mr John Connolly from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and International Space University, and key informants for their assistance during the Space Studies Program team project. We would also like to acknowledge the members of the Space Studies Program who were involved in the Tracking Fracking Project.