Student information

MSc thesis topic: Exploring the potential of high-resolution and hyper-spectral Satellite Imagery for River Plastic Mapping

Plastic pollution in rivers is an emerging environmental risk, threatening aquatic life and human livelihood. Plastic accumulates at specific locations within rivers systems for long periods of time. This Thesis will explore the potential of PlanetScope imagery (high spatial resolution/low spectral resolution) and EnMap (low spatial resolution / high spectral resolution) for plastic monitoring.

PlanetScope images are available through the PlanetScope subscription of the GRS Chair-Group. EnMAP images need to be requested at specific locations through the EnMAP Portal. Part of the Master Thesis will be to identify relevant areas to EnMAP and PlanetScope data to run remote sensing analysis on the suitability of these sensors for plastic monitoring.

Relevance to research at GRS or other groups

  • This Master Thesis is supervised by Marc Rußwurm and co-supervised by Tim van Emmerik (WUR- HWM) and Mathias Bochow (GFZ-Potsdam)

Research Questions & Objectives

  • develop a transferable river plastic detection method based on remote sensing
  • analyze what are the limitations of PlanetScope and EnMAP for river plastic monitoring
  • evaluate the sufficiency of the spatial resolution of EnMAP (30m) with respect to detecting plastics in sub-pixels. This involves investigating spectral unmixing and endmember selection techniques.
  • investigate high-potential areas of plastic accumulations in rivers.

Requirements

  • required: experience in remote sensing data analysis and understanding of hyperspectral data. Experience in remote sensing software.
  • optional: interest in plastic litter monitoring
  • optional: experience with spectral unmixing (endmember extraction)

Expected reading list before starting the thesis research

  • Van Emmerik, T., Roebroek, C., De Winter, W., Vriend, P., Boonstra, M., & Hougee, M. (2020). Riverbank macrolitter in the Dutch Rhine–Meuse delta. Environmental Research Letters, 15(10), 104087.
  • Atwood, E. C., Falcieri, F. M., Piehl, S., Bochow, M., et al,, & Siegert, F. (2019). Coastal accumulation of microplastic particles emitted from the Po River, Northern Italy: Comparing remote sensing and hydrodynamic modelling with in situ sample collections. Marine pollution bulletin, 138, 561-574.

Theme(s): Sensing & measuring, Modelling & visualisation