When the primary uses of satellite imagery are ranked, evidence in a court trial likely will not place high on the list of applications. But the state of Arizona is using images from Space Imaging‘s Ikonos satellite in a lawsuit filed against a land developer.

According to Space Imaging, the state is suing an unnamed Scottsdale, Ariz., developer for allegedly illegally bulldozing state and private land known as La Osa Ranch, located northwest of Marana, Ariz. According to the state, the developer destroyed American Indian ruins dating back to 750, killed more than 40,000 protected native plants on state trust lands, discharged pollutants into the Santa Cruz River and caused an epidemic that killed 21 rare desert bighorn sheep.

Marana’s Geographic Information Systems department has been collecting satellite imagery for the past three years to map the city’s expanding boundaries, chart the recreational trail system and produce 3-dimensional views of proposed developments to provide citizens a glimpse of what their neighborhoods will look like in the future.

“We routinely collect satellite images of our town and the surrounding area to map our community and to better understand its growth and environmental changes,” Chris Mack, the town’s senior geographic information systems specialist, said in a statement.

It was in this day-to-day use of satellite imagery that Mack determined that the terrain at La Osa Ranch had been altered. The satellite imagery captured the alleged land clearing, which covered an area of more than 700 acres of wetlands and desert terrain stretching more than four miles from north to south.

Mack first heard allegations of the alleged illegal clearing in December 2003. He looked at the satellite photographs taken in 2003 and compared it to photos taken in 2002, which revealed the beginning of land clearing activity. In the summer of 2004, when Marana ordered its annual batch of satellite imagery, the photographs revealed the full extent of the damage.

“When I heard about the controversy in La Osa Ranch, I discovered that the imagery we collected happened to include the area under investigation and we were quickly able to see the changes in the land by comparing images taken [during] the past few years,” Mack said. “The satellite imagery was very telling and should play a key role in the litigation because it clearly demonstrates the sequence of events.”