Remote sensing research on plastics in marine and inland water: Development, opportunities and challenge

Zhixiong Chen; Wei Si; Verner Carl Johnson; Saheed Adeyinka Oke; Shuting Wang; Xinlin Lv; Mou Leong Tan; Fei Zhang; Xu Ma

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.123815

Remote sensing research on plastics in marine and inland water: Development, opportunities and challenge

J Environ Manage. 2024 Dec 24:373:123815. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.123815. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Zhixiong Chen¹, Wei Si¹, Verner Carl Johnson², Saheed Adeyinka Oke³, Shuting Wang⁴, Xinlin Lv⁵, Mou Leong Tan⁶, Fei Zhang⁷, Xu Ma⁸

Affiliations

¹ College of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinghua, 321100, China.
² Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, Colorado Mesa University, Grand Junction, CO, 81501, USA.
³ Civil Engineering Department, Central University of Technology Bloemfontein, 9300, South Africa.
⁴ Hangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Hangzhou Health Supervision Institution), Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310021, China.
⁵ School of Environment and Geographical Science, Shanghai Normal University, Xuhui, 200030, China.
⁶ Geography Section, School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, Penang, Malaysia.
⁷ College of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinghua, 321100, China. Electronic address: zhangfei3s@163.com.
⁸ College of Geography and Remote Sensing Sciences, Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Oasis Ecology, Xingjiang University, Urumqi, 830017, China. Electronic address: maxu2020@xju.edu.cn.

PMID: 39721385
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.123815

Abstract

The accumulation of plastic waste from various sources into marine and inland water is considered a global problem due to its serious impacts on aquatic ecosystems and human health. In the past decade, remote sensing has played an important role in monitoring of plastic pollution in marine and inland water sources and has achieved a series of research results in this field. In this study, a comprehensive review was conducted on the development, opportunities, and challenges of datasets and methods in Marine and Inland Water Plastics Remote Sensing (MIWPRS) monitoring over the past decade, based on the Web of Science (WOS) core database. The results indicated that compared with traditional methods, remote sensing has attracted the attention of scholars due to its advantages. Since 2014, the number of related publications has been increasing year by year, especially in China and the United States, which have achieved tremendous development. The MIWPRS research focus mostly on the use of different satellite remote sensing data and related algorithms to obtain the distribution of plastics in marine and inland water. However, it faces the challenge of lacking subsequent systematic impact assessment models and key pollution prevention measures. In terms of data acquisition, there is a lack of continuous observation models due to the fluidity of marine and inland water. Therefore, MIWPRS has great development opportunities in developing specialized sensors and combining multi-source data with interdisciplinary knowledge such as artificial intelligence (AI) and GIS. It is necessary for us to improve the seasonal migration model of plastics in water and promote the development of MIWPRS towards broader and deeper fields.

Keywords: Inland water; Marine; Plastics; Remote sensing.

Publication types

Review