\cf1\f1 Consideration of cumulative effects as part of the environmental impact assessment process is seen as an essential element to ensure a complete determination of impact significance. These effects, defined as the incremental impact of an action when added to other past, present, and future activities, often result from individually minor but collectively significant actions taking place over a period of time. While conceptually appealing, the analysis of cumulative impacts has been frustrated by the absence of tractable methodologies to facilitate their identification and inclusion in more comprehensive environmental impact assessments. In this article the potential role of remotely sensed data is discussed and a scoping methodology based on the use of remotely sensed data is presented. For over three decades remote sensing has enabled the collection of detailed environmental data in a systematic and reliable manner. The method introduced in this article utilizes the ability to transform remotely sensed data into landscape indicators that can be employed to summarize the status of the environmental system and detect changed conditions over time. Through this procedure the pattern of cumulative effects on critical environmental indicators can be observed and the contribution of new actions can be more easily discerned. The procedure outlined also supports the implementation of satellite-based monitoring to uncover trends within a specified planning region. A demonstration of this scoping methodology illustrates that even over a comparatively short time-horizon, remotely sensed data can provide sufficient information to help identify the significant issues surrounding cumulative change. \cf0\f0