Monitoring River Pollution With High-resolution
Satellite Images
Author(s)
P. Trivero, W. Biamino & M. Borasi
Abstract
The Bormida river basin is a strongly polluted rural area in North West Italy. The
contamination has been caused by a chemical plant operating locally from 1892
to 1997 with ensuing heavy consequences on agriculture, animal life and human
health. In the last few years, there has been an attempt to remove hazardous
waste and improve the conditions of the site.
We have employed a method based on high-resolution visible and infrared
satellite images, which is able to assess the environmental impact of water
contamination, with the aim of monitoring river banks. This method quantifies
the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) on crops located close to
the river using remote-sensed data. In this way it is possible to assess the spatial
and temporal progression of land contamination and thus to be able to have an
understanding of how much the interventions aimed at improving the situation
were effective.
The results obtained show that it is possible to assess the influence of water
pollution along the entire valley: consequences are clearly visible up to 60 km
downstream because of the great amounts of pollutants having been discharged.
This method has been tested using Quickbird imagery (spatial resolution ~ 2.4
m/pixel) and has been validated comparing the results with chemical
measurements.
Keywords: remote sensing, water pollution, NDVI.
1 Introduction
Throughout the nineteenth century, growing industrialisation led European
nations to improved economic wealth. It also caused new, widespread concerns:
environmental issues became increasingly important. Words such as \“ecology”
and \“ecosystem” were coined [1].
Keywords
remote sensing, water pollution, NDVI.
Related Book
Other papers in this volume
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