Tracking Macroplastics Leaching Into Rivers From Space

Tracking macroplastics leaching into rivers from space

Scientists have developed a new method to identify and map plastic waste in urban areas using satellite imagery, offering new hope for tracking pollution and improving waste management in cities worldwide.

Tracking Macroplastics Leeching Into Rivers from Space

Rivers are one of the main ways that plastics get into the world's oceans, and now we can identify where plastic waste accumulates from space. Researchers used data from the Worldview-3 satellite to identify and map plastic material and polymer-coated surfaces in a watershed on the US-Mexico border. They collected different waste from stream channels and then identified their specific infrared absorption features, matching them to satellite imag…