Preprint Article Version 2 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Detection of Waste Plastics in the Environment: Application of Copernicus Earth Observation data

Version 1 : Received: 1 July 2022 / Approved: 27 July 2022 / Online: 27 July 2022 (04:35:50 CEST)
Version 2 : Received: 27 September 2022 / Approved: 28 September 2022 / Online: 28 September 2022 (03:32:19 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Lavender, S. Detection of Waste Plastics in the Environment: Application of Copernicus Earth Observation Data. Remote Sens. 2022, 14, 4772. Lavender, S. Detection of Waste Plastics in the Environment: Application of Copernicus Earth Observation Data. Remote Sens. 2022, 14, 4772.

Abstract

The detection of waste plastics in the marine and terrestrial environment using satellite Earth Observation data offers the possibility of large-scale mapping, and reducing on-the-ground manual investigation. In addition, costs are kept to a minimum by utilizing free-to-access Copernicus data. A Machine Learning based classifier was developed to run on Sentinel-1 and -2 data. In support of the training and validation, a dataset was created with terrestrial and aquatic cases by manually digitizing varying landcover classes alongside plastics under the sub-categories of greenhouses, plastic, tyres and waste sites. The trained classifier, including an Artificial Neural Network and post-processing decision tree, was verified using five locations encompassing these different forms of plastic. Although exact matchups are challenging to digitize, the performance has generated high accuracy statistics, and the resulting land cover classifications have been used to map the occurrence of plastic waste in aquatic and terrestrial environments.

Keywords

plastic; tyres; waste; greenhouses; remote sensing; Copernicus; Sentinel-1; Sentinel-2

Subject

Environmental and Earth Sciences, Environmental Science

Comments (1)

Comment 1
Received: 28 September 2022
Commenter: Samantha Lavender
Commenter's Conflict of Interests: Author
Comment: This is the version, before publication, including all the requested revisions.
+ Respond to this comment

We encourage comments and feedback from a broad range of readers. See criteria for comments and our Diversity statement.

Leave a public comment
Send a private comment to the author(s)
* All users must log in before leaving a comment
Views 0
Downloads 0
Comments 1
Metrics 0


×
Alerts
Notify me about updates to this article or when a peer-reviewed version is published.
We use cookies on our website to ensure you get the best experience.
Read more about our cookies here.