{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,19]],"date-time":"2026-03-19T19:37:45Z","timestamp":1773949065883,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":65,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"19","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,9,23]],"date-time":"2022-09-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1663891200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000844","name":"European Space Agency","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["4000131481\/20\/NL\/GLC"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["4000131481\/20\/NL\/GLC"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000844","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000844","name":"European Space Agency","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2010JVVZ"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2010JVVZ"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000844","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Singapore Government","award":["4000131481\/20\/NL\/GLC"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["4000131481\/20\/NL\/GLC"]}]},{"name":"Singapore Government","award":["2010JVVZ"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2010JVVZ"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>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.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs14194772","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,9,26]],"date-time":"2022-09-26T03:34:17Z","timestamp":1664163257000},"page":"4772","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":24,"title":["Detection of Waste Plastics in the Environment: Application of Copernicus Earth Observation Data"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5181-9425","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Samantha","family":"Lavender","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Pixalytics Ltd., Plymouth Science Park, Davy Road, Plymouth PL6 8BX, UK"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,9,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Royer, S.-J., Ferr\u00f3n, S., Wilson, S.T., and Karl, D.M. (2018). Production of Methane and Ethylene from Plastic in the Environment. PLoS ONE, 13.","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0200574"},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"(2022, May 01). The World\u2019s Plastic Pollution Crisis Explained. Available online: https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/environment\/article\/plastic-pollution."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"442","DOI":"10.1038\/s41586-020-3010-5","article-title":"Global Human-Made Mass Exceeds All Living Biomass","volume":"588","author":"Elhacham","year":"2020","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Dumbili, E., and Henderson, L. (2020). The Challenge of Plastic Pollution in Nigeria. Plastic Waste and Recycling, Elsevier.","DOI":"10.1016\/B978-0-12-817880-5.00022-0"},{"key":"ref_5","unstructured":"(2022, May 01). Fly-Tipping Statistics for England, 2020 to 2021, Available online: https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/statistics\/fly-tipping-in-england\/fly-tipping-statistics-for-england-2020-to-2021."},{"key":"ref_6","unstructured":"(2020, March 20). Waste Disguised as Hay Bales at Turnhouse Farm in Edinburgh. Available online: https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-29567276."},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"(2020, March 20). Household Waste Disguised as Hay Bales Dumped in Essex. Available online: https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-england-essex-22135870."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1262","DOI":"10.1177\/0734242X13507968","article-title":"Review, Mapping and Analysis of the Agricultural Plastic Waste Generation and Consolidation in Europe","volume":"31","author":"Briassoulis","year":"2013","journal-title":"Waste Manag. Res."},{"key":"ref_9","unstructured":"(2022, June 27). European Commission Waste Framework Directive. Available online: https:\/\/environment.ec.europa.eu\/topics\/waste-and-recycling\/waste-framework-directive_en."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"463","DOI":"10.14358\/PERS.78.5.463","article-title":"Identification of Waste Tires Using High-Resolution Multispectral Satellite Imagery","volume":"78","author":"Quinlan","year":"2012","journal-title":"Photogramm. Eng. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_11","unstructured":"(2022, June 27). World Business Council for Sustainable Development End-of-Life Tires. Available online: https:\/\/www.wbcsd.org\/Sector-Projects\/Tire-Industry-Project\/News\/End-of-Life-Tires."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"621","DOI":"10.1016\/j.watres.2019.06.049","article-title":"Nano\/Microplastics in Water and Wastewater Treatment Processes\u2014Origin, Impact and Potential Solutions","volume":"161","author":"Enfrin","year":"2019","journal-title":"Water Res."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"768","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1260352","article-title":"Plastic Waste Inputs from Land into the Ocean","volume":"347","author":"Jambeck","year":"2015","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5364","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-020-62298-z","article-title":"Finding Plastic Patches in Coastal Waters Using Optical Satellite Data","volume":"10","author":"Biermann","year":"2020","journal-title":"Sci. Rep."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Themistocleous, K., Papoutsa, C., Michaelides, S., and Hadjimitsis, D. (2020). Investigating Detection of Floating Plastic Litter from Space Using Sentinel-2 Imagery. Remote Sens., 12.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs12162648"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Arias, M., Sumerot, R., Delaney, J., Coulibaly, F., Cozar, A., Aliani, S., Suaria, G., Papadopoulou, T., and Corradi, P. (2021, January 11). Advances on Remote Sensing of Windrows as Proxies for Marine Litter Based on Sentinel-2\/MSI Datasets. Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium IGARSS, Brussels, Belgium.","DOI":"10.1109\/IGARSS47720.2021.9555139"},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"113424","DOI":"10.1016\/j.marpolbul.2022.113424","article-title":"Litter and Plastic Monitoring in the Indian Marine Environment: A Review of Current Research, Policies, Waste Management, and a Roadmap for Multidisciplinary Action","volume":"176","author":"Sivadas","year":"2022","journal-title":"Mar. Pollut. Bull."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Chen, Z., Wang, L., Wu, W., Jiang, Z., and Li, H. (2016). Monitoring Plastic-Mulched Farmland by Landsat-8 OLI Imagery Using Spectral and Textural Features. Remote Sens., 8.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs8040353"},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"183","DOI":"10.1080\/01431160600658156","article-title":"Remote Sensing as a Tool for Monitoring Plasticulture in Agricultural Landscapes","volume":"28","author":"Levin","year":"2007","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1145","DOI":"10.1016\/j.marpolbul.2018.08.044","article-title":"Proof of Concept for a Model of Light Reflectance of Plastics Floating on Natural Waters","volume":"135","author":"Dufaur","year":"2018","journal-title":"Mar. Pollut. Bull."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Guffogg, J.A., Blades, S.M., Soto-Berelov, M., Bellman, C.J., Skidmore, A.K., and Jones, S.D. (2021). Quantifying Marine Plastic Debris in a Beach Environment Using Spectral Analysis. Remote Sens., 13.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs13224548"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Page, R., Lavender, S., Thomas, D., Berry, K., Stevens, S., Haq, M., Udugbezi, E., Fowler, G., Best, J., and Brockie, I. (2020). Identification of Tyre and Plastic Waste from Combined Copernicus Sentinel-1 and -2 Data. Remote Sens., 12.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs12172824"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kruse, C., Boyda, E., Chen, S., Karra, K., Bou-Nahra, T., Hammer, D., Mathis, J., Maddalene, T., Jambeck, J., and Laurier, F. (2022). Satellite Monitoring of Terrestrial Plastic Waste. arXiv.","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0278997"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"386","DOI":"10.1177\/0734242X18821808","article-title":"Detection of Waste Dumping Locations in Landfill Using Multi-Temporal Landsat Thermal Images","volume":"37","author":"Gill","year":"2019","journal-title":"Waste Manag. Res."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"8161","DOI":"10.1007\/s10661-014-3995-z","article-title":"Analysis of Multi-Temporal Landsat Satellite Images for Monitoring Land Surface Temperature of Municipal Solid Waste Disposal Sites","volume":"186","author":"Yan","year":"2014","journal-title":"Environ. Monit. Assess."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"195","DOI":"10.1016\/j.wasman.2022.02.031","article-title":"Development and Application of an Analytical Framework for Mapping Probable Illegal Dumping Sites Using Nighttime Light Imagery and Various Remote Sensing Indices","volume":"143","author":"Karimi","year":"2022","journal-title":"Waste Manag."},{"key":"ref_27","unstructured":"(2022, June 18). ESA Sentinel-2 Processing Baseline. Available online: https:\/\/sentinels.copernicus.eu\/web\/sentinel\/technical-guides\/sentinel-2-msi\/processing-baseline."},{"key":"ref_28","unstructured":"(2022, June 18). SAR-MPC Sentinel-1 IPF Versions. Available online: https:\/\/sar-mpc.eu\/ipf\/."},{"key":"ref_29","unstructured":"Emric, E. (2022, June 05). Trash Fills Bosnia River Faster than Workers Can Pull It Out. Available online: https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/environment-serbia-hydroelectric-power-95866b7e3af63b9608218e89791df5d0."},{"key":"ref_30","unstructured":"Kresna, M. (2022, June 05). Plastic Trash Runs down the Solo River to Pollute the Java Sea. Available online: https:\/\/earthjournalism.net\/stories\/plastic-trash-runs-down-the-solo-river-to-pollute-the-java-sea."},{"key":"ref_31","unstructured":"Batool, M. (2022, June 05). Strategy for Solid Waste Management in Srinagar. Available online: https:\/\/www.greaterkashmir.com\/todays-paper\/strategy-for-solid-waste-management-in-srinagar."},{"key":"ref_32","unstructured":"Mukhtar, I. (2022, June 19). Kuwait Struggling to Get Rid of World\u2019s Biggest Tire Graveyard. Available online: https:\/\/www.aa.com.tr\/en\/environment\/kuwait-struggling-to-get-rid-of-world-s-biggest-tire-graveyard\/2332769."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"15","DOI":"10.4081\/jae.2011.28","article-title":"Plastic materials in european agriculture: Actual use and perspectives","volume":"42","author":"Sica","year":"2012","journal-title":"J. Agric. Eng."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"112598","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2021.112598","article-title":"A Knowledge-Based, Validated Classifier for the Identification of Aliphatic and Aromatic Plastics by WorldView-3 Satellite Data","volume":"264","author":"Zhou","year":"2021","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_35","first-page":"102441","article-title":"Mapping of Plastic Greenhouses and Mulching Films from Very High Resolution Remote Sensing Imagery Based on a Dilated and Non-Local Convolutional Neural Network","volume":"102","author":"Feng","year":"2021","journal-title":"Int. J. Appl. Earth Obs. Geoinf."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"113042","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2022.113042","article-title":"A Novel Index for Robust and Large-Scale Mapping of Plastic Greenhouse from Sentinel-2 Images","volume":"276","author":"Zhang","year":"2022","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_37","unstructured":"(2020, March 20). STEP: Science Toolbox Exploitation Platform. Available online: http:\/\/step.esa.int\/main\/toolboxes\/snap\/."},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Truckenbrodt, J., Freemantle, T., Williams, C., Jones, T., Small, D., Dubois, C., Thiel, C., Rossi, C., Syriou, A., and Giuliani, G. (2019). Towards Sentinel-1 SAR Analysis-Ready Data: A Best Practices Assessment on Preparing Backscatter Data for the Cube. Data, 4.","DOI":"10.3390\/data4030093"},{"key":"ref_39","unstructured":"Filipponi, F. (June, January 22). Sentinel-1 GRD Preprocessing Workflow. Proceedings of the 3rd International Electronic Conference on Remote Sensing, Online."},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Joshi, N., Baumann, M., Ehammer, A., Fensholt, R., Grogan, K., Hostert, P., Jepsen, M., Kuemmerle, T., Meyfroidt, P., and Mitchard, E. (2016). A Review of the Application of Optical and Radar Remote Sensing Data Fusion to Land Use Mapping and Monitoring. Remote Sens., 8.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs8010070"},{"key":"ref_41","unstructured":"(2022, June 27). STEP. Sen2Cor, Available online: https:\/\/step.esa.int\/main\/snap-supported-plugins\/sen2cor\/."},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"295","DOI":"10.1016\/0034-4257(88)90106-X","article-title":"A Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI)","volume":"25","author":"Huete","year":"1988","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"127","DOI":"10.1016\/0034-4257(79)90013-0","article-title":"Red and photographic infrared combinations for monitoring vegetation","volume":"8","author":"Tucker","year":"1979","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1425","DOI":"10.1080\/01431169608948714","article-title":"The Use of the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) in the Delineation of Open Water Features","volume":"17","author":"McFeeters","year":"1996","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_45","unstructured":"Fisser, H. (2022, May 13). GitHub, Truck Detection Sentinel2 COVID19. Available online: https:\/\/github.com\/hfisser\/Truck_Detection_Sentinel2_COVID19."},{"key":"ref_46","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"583","DOI":"10.1080\/01431160304987","article-title":"Use of Normalized Difference Built-up Index in Automatically Mapping Urban Areas from TM Imagery","volume":"24","author":"Zha","year":"2003","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zhou, T., Fu, H., Sun, C., and Wang, S. (2021). Shadow Detection and Compensation from Remote Sensing Images under Complex Urban Conditions. Remote Sens., 13.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs13040699"},{"key":"ref_48","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1661","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2006.869980","article-title":"A Comparative Study on Shadow Compensation of Color Aerial Images in Invariant Color Models","volume":"44","author":"Tsai","year":"2006","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_49","first-page":"07","article-title":"A Comparison of Artificial Neural Networks and Random Forests to Predict Native Fish Species Richness in Mediterranean Rivers","volume":"409","author":"Vezza","year":"2013","journal-title":"Knowl. Managt. Aquatic Ecosyst."},{"key":"ref_50","unstructured":"(2018, September 19). CORINE Land Cover. Available online: https:\/\/www.eea.europa.eu\/publications\/COR0-landcover."},{"key":"ref_51","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"53","DOI":"10.1016\/j.isprsjprs.2019.10.017","article-title":"A Local Thresholding Approach to Flood Water Delineation Using Sentinel-1 SAR Imagery","volume":"159","author":"Liang","year":"2020","journal-title":"ISPRS J. Photogramm. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_52","unstructured":"O\u2019Malley, T., Bursztein, E., Long, J., Chollet, F., Jin, H., and Invernizzi, L. (2022, June 27). KerasTuner. Available online: https:\/\/github.com\/keras-team\/keras-tuner."},{"key":"ref_53","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"427","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ipm.2009.03.002","article-title":"A Systematic Analysis of Performance Measures for Classification Tasks","volume":"45","author":"Sokolova","year":"2009","journal-title":"Inf. Processing Manag."},{"key":"ref_54","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"168","DOI":"10.1016\/j.aci.2018.08.003","article-title":"Classification Assessment Methods","volume":"17","author":"Tharwat","year":"2021","journal-title":"ACI"},{"key":"ref_55","first-page":"360","article-title":"Understanding Interobserver Agreement: The Kappa Statistic","volume":"37","author":"Vieira","year":"2005","journal-title":"Fam. Med."},{"key":"ref_56","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"159","DOI":"10.2307\/2529310","article-title":"The Measurement of Observer Agreement for Categorical Data","volume":"33","author":"Landis","year":"1977","journal-title":"Biometrics"},{"key":"ref_57","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mart\u00ednez-Vicente, V., Clark, J.R., Corradi, P., Aliani, S., Arias, M., Bochow, M., Bonnery, G., Cole, M., C\u00f3zar, A., and Donnelly, R. (2019). Measuring Marine Plastic Debris from Space: Initial Assessment of Observation Requirements. Remote Sens., 11.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs11202443"},{"key":"ref_58","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"224","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2017.11.023","article-title":"An Airborne Remote Sensing Case Study of Synthetic Hydrocarbon Detection Using Short Wave Infrared Absorption Features Identified from Marine-Harvested Macro- and Microplastics","volume":"205","author":"Garaba","year":"2018","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_59","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Taggio, N., Aiello, A., Ceriola, G., Kremezi, M., Kristollari, V., Kolokoussis, P., Karathanassi, V., and Barbone, E. (2022). A Combination of Machine Learning Algorithms for Marine Plastic Litter Detection Exploiting Hyperspectral PRISMA Data. Remote Sens., 14.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs14153606"},{"key":"ref_60","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lu, L., Tao, Y., and Di, L. (2018). Object-Based Plastic-Mulched Landcover Extraction Using Integrated Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 Data. Remote Sens., 10.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs10111820"},{"key":"ref_61","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"113527","DOI":"10.1016\/j.marpolbul.2022.113527","article-title":"Development of Automated Marine Floating Plastic Detection System Using Sentinel-2 Imagery and Machine Learning Models","volume":"178","author":"Sannigrahi","year":"2022","journal-title":"Mar. Pollut. Bull."},{"key":"ref_62","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kikaki, A., Karantzalos, K., Power, C.A., and Raitsos, D.E. (2020). Remotely Sensing the Source and Transport of Marine Plastic Debris in Bay Islands of Honduras (Caribbean Sea). Remote Sens., 12.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs12111727"},{"key":"ref_63","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kikaki, K., Kakogeorgiou, I., Mikeli, P., Raitsos, D.E., and Karantzalos, K. (2022). MARIDA: A Benchmark for Marine Debris Detection from Sentinel-2 Remote Sensing Data. PLoS ONE, 17.","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0262247"},{"key":"ref_64","unstructured":"D\u2019Amour, A., Heller, K., Moldovan, D., Adlam, B., Alipanahi, B., Beutel, A., Chen, C., Deaton, J., Eisenstein, J., and Hoffman, M.D. (2020). Underspecification Presents Challenges for Credibility in Modern Machine Learning. arXiv."},{"key":"ref_65","unstructured":"World Bank (2021). Plastic Waste Discharges from Rivers and Coastlines in Indonesia, World Bank. Marine Plastics Series, East Asia and Pacific Region."}],"container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/14\/19\/4772\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T00:38:36Z","timestamp":1760143116000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/14\/19\/4772"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2022,9,23]]},"references-count":65,"journal-issue":{"issue":"19","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,10]]}},"alternative-id":["rs14194772"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/rs14194772","relation":{"has-preprint":[{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.20944\/preprints202207.0410.v1","asserted-by":"object"},{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.20944\/preprints202207.0410.v2","asserted-by":"object"}]},"ISSN":["2072-4292"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2072-4292","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2022,9,23]]}}}