Glossary

First ground disturbance

Also: groundbreaking, mobilization, site clearing

The first clearing or grading on a site, the moment construction starts on the ground; Groundtrace watches for it from satellite.

Construction starts on the ground with clearing and grading: vegetation removed, roads cut, basins dug. That first disturbance is visible from space within days.

Groundtrace compares Sentinel-2 satellite scenes of each site over time and records the first date the ground changed, and later the phases it can see, such as rows of piles. A ceremony or a press release may come before or after; the scene is dated by what happened on the ground.