Papers

20 results
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Article Tier 2

Large Scale Agricultural Plastic Mulch Detecting and Monitoring with Multi-Source Remote Sensing Data: A Case Study in Xinjiang, China

Satellite imagery was used to monitor plastic mulch film coverage across large agricultural areas in China, mapping both spatial extent and temporal changes. Accurately tracking plastic mulch use is important because agricultural film residues are a major source of microplastic contamination in farmland soils.

2019 Remote Sensing 57 citations
Article Tier 2

New Workflow of Plastic-Mulched Farmland Mapping using Multi-Temporal Sentinel-2 data

Researchers used multi-temporal satellite imagery to map plastic-mulched farmland in China, providing a tool for monitoring the environmental risk of agricultural plastic use. Plastic mulch is a significant source of microplastic contamination in agricultural soils when film residues break down over time.

2019 Remote Sensing 25 citations
Article Tier 2

Spatio-temporal dynamics of plastic mulch use in crop rotation at parcel and regional scales

Researchers used satellite data to track where and when farmers applied plastic mulch on agricultural fields in a European region from 2017 to 2021, finding that silage maize and asparagus fields most frequently used plastic mulch. Their analysis also revealed that 70% of maize plots used plastic mulch four or more years in a row, raising concerns about long-term plastic accumulation in agricultural soils.

2024 International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Implementing a GIS-Based Digital Atlas of Agricultural Plastics to Reduce Their Environmental Footprint; Part I: A Deductive Approach

Researchers developed a GIS-based methodology using orthophotos and satellite imagery to map and quantify agricultural plastic coverage in the Ionian Coast region of southern Italy, identifying approximately 2,000 hectares of crop protection plastics and locating areas most susceptible to plastic waste accumulation. The open-source GIS framework was designed to be replicable by local authorities as the basis for a regional agricultural plastics atlas.

2022 Applied Sciences 12 citations
Article Tier 2

Large scale detection of plastic covered crops using multispectral and SAR satellite data

Researchers used satellite imagery combining optical and radar data to detect large-scale plastic covering of agricultural crops across wide geographic areas. The remote sensing approach could help monitor plasticulture practices and track the potential for plastic debris to enter nearby ecosystems.

2023
Article Tier 2

Remote sensing detection of plastic-mulched farmland using a temporal approach in machine learning: case study in tomato crops

Researchers tested machine learning classifiers on Sentinel-2 satellite time-series images to map plastic-mulched farmlands, achieving 99.7% accuracy using a multilayer perceptron model and demonstrating that a 3-image composite series reduces confusion with background vegetation — producing the first plastic mulch map for Latin America.

2024 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Plastic film residues on cropland: monitoring soil contamination through optical remote sensing

Researchers used optical remote sensing to monitor plastic film residues on agricultural cropland, demonstrating that satellite-based methods can detect surface plastic contamination across large areas. The study provides a scalable approach for tracking agricultural plastic residues — a major secondary microplastic source in soils — without the labor intensity of field sampling.

2025
Article Tier 2

Microplastic Pollution In Agricultural Lands And Its Environmental Impact Assessed Through Remote Sensing

Researchers combined field sampling and remote sensing to assess microplastic pollution in agricultural soils across three Indian locations, finding microplastics in both surface and subsurface layers and correlating pollution levels with land use patterns detectable by satellite imagery.

2025 International Journal of Environmental Sciences
Article Tier 2

Mapping of Agricultural Plastics Pollution in Soil: case study of Italy, France and Norway

Researchers developed an atlas quantifying and localizing agricultural plastic waste in Italy, France, and Norway, finding that plastic mulch films and other agricultural plastics accumulate in soils and generate microplastic contamination that varies significantly by crop type, climate, and waste management practices.

2025 CINECA IRIS Institutional Research Information System (University of Bari Aldo Moro)
Article Tier 2

Duration- and area-dependent influences of plastic film mulch on soil microplastics abundance

Researchers conducted a field campaign combined with remote sensing to investigate how the duration and coverage area of plastic film mulching affect microplastic abundance in agricultural soils in northern China's agro-pastoral ecotone, finding that microplastic concentrations ranged from 41.7 to 787.5 items per kilogram and positively correlated with mulching duration.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials
Article Tier 2

GIS mapping of agricultural plastic waste in southern Europe

Researchers used geographic information systems to map the generation and distribution of agricultural plastic waste across four southern European countries: Italy, Spain, Greece, and Portugal. They quantified plastic waste from different farming systems at the regional level and identified hotspots where waste management infrastructure is most needed. The study provides a spatial framework that could help policymakers target plastic waste reduction strategies in agriculture.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 11 citations
Article Tier 2

Implementing a GIS-Based Digital Atlas of Agricultural Plastics to Reduce Their Environmental Footprint: Part II, an Inductive Approach

Researchers implemented a GIS-based digital atlas of agricultural plastics using an inductive approach, aiming to map and reduce the environmental footprint of plastic use in farming and address alarming levels of terrestrial plastic contamination.

2022 Applied Sciences 4 citations
Article Tier 2

A New Method for Detecting Plastic-Mulched Land Using GF-2 Imagery

Researchers developed a new remote sensing method for detecting plastic-mulched agricultural land using GF-2 satellite imagery by introducing a K-T transform component specifically enhanced for plastic identification. The method was combined with texture metrics and spectral bands in an object-oriented classification approach. The study demonstrates improved accuracy in mapping plastic mulch coverage, which is important for monitoring agricultural plastic waste that contributes to soil microplastic pollution.

2025 Applied Sciences 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Identifying hot-spots for microplastic contamination in agricultural soils—a spatial modelling approach for Germany

A spatial model was developed to identify hotspots of microplastic contamination in German agricultural soils based on plastic use in farming, sewage sludge application rates, and atmospheric deposition estimates, predicting that certain intensively farmed regions accumulate substantially more plastic than previously estimated from limited field studies.

2021 Environmental Research Letters 60 citations
Article Tier 2

Plastic Debrisin Agroecosystems: Distribution andAbundance Patterns, and Relationship with Terrain Characteristicsin Southeastern Brazil

Researchers surveyed plastic debris across forest, grassland, and agricultural land in a Southeast Brazil sub-basin, finding that agricultural areas accounted for 91.2% of total plastic waste with polypropylene, polyethylene, and PVC comprising 82.6% of polymers detected. Distribution strongly correlated with terrain characteristics, particularly slope and vegetation cover.

2025 Figshare
Article Tier 2

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

Researchers developed a machine learning classifier using free Copernicus satellite data to detect plastic waste — including greenhouses, tyres, and waste sites — in both aquatic and terrestrial environments, achieving high accuracy and enabling low-cost large-scale plastic pollution mapping.

2022 Remote Sensing 25 citations
Article Tier 2

Plastic mulching in agriculture. Trading short-term agronomic benefits for long-term soil degradation?

This study examined plastic mulch use in agriculture, arguing that short-term crop benefits come with long-term costs as mulch fragments accumulate in soil as microplastics and disrupt soil structure, biology, and water dynamics.

2016 The Science of The Total Environment 1452 citations
Article Tier 2

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

Researchers used free Copernicus Earth observation satellite data and machine learning to detect waste plastic in marine and terrestrial environments at a large scale. The classifier was trained on Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data and performed well for detecting larger plastic accumulations. Satellite-based detection could enable continuous, wide-area monitoring of plastic pollution at a fraction of the cost of ground surveys.

2022 Preprints.org 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Estimation of soil microplastic input derived from plastic gauze using a simplified model

Researchers developed a simplified estimation model combining remote sensing with field data to quantify microplastic input into soils from degrading plastic gauze used in haze prevention and agriculture in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region of China.

2021 The Science of The Total Environment 26 citations
Article Tier 2

Agricultural plastic mulching as a source of microplastics in the terrestrial environment

Researchers analyzed 384 soil samples from 19 Chinese provinces and found that macroplastic fragments were concentrated in agricultural fields with plastic mulch film use, providing large-scale field evidence linking agricultural mulching to terrestrial plastic contamination.

2020 Environmental Pollution 1205 citations