An ESA-backed project has demonstrated how Earth observation satellites can assist in the cross compliance measures – a set of environmental and animal welfare standards that farmers have to respect to receive full funding from the European Union - included in the 2003 reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy. By using special classification procedures on very high resolution (VHR) satellite images, identification of landscape features, including hedges, tree rows, water ponds, walls and single trees, is possible. By comparing older and recent images of these same areas with the processed ‘reference landscape feature’ layer, the removal of these features can be detected.