Papers

61,005 results
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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

Towards Detecting Floating Objects on a Global Scale with Learned Spatial Features Using Sentinel 2

Researchers developed a machine learning approach using Sentinel-2 satellite imagery to detect floating plastic debris and marine litter on a global scale, demonstrating that learned spatial features can improve detection of large aggregations of floating objects on water surfaces.

2021 ISPRS annals of the photogrammetry, remote sensing and spatial information sciences 28 citations
Article Tier 2

Targeting Plastics: Machine Learning Applied to Litter Detection in Aerial Multispectral Images

Researchers applied machine learning to aerial multispectral images for automated detection of plastic litter in natural areas, demonstrating that combining spectral data with classification algorithms can effectively identify and monitor plastic waste pollution.

2022 Remote Sensing 25 citations
Article Tier 2

Automatic Detection and Identification of Floating Marine Debris Using Multispectral Satellite Imagery

Researchers developed a machine learning approach using Sentinel-2 satellite imagery and extreme gradient boosting to automatically detect and distinguish floating plastic debris from other marine materials like driftwood and seaweed.

2023 IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 43 citations
Article Tier 2

Finding Plastic Patches in Coastal Waters using Optical Satellite Data

Researchers demonstrated for the first time that floating macroplastic patches can be detected in optical data from the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 satellites, validating detections against ground-truth observations and identifying characteristics that distinguish plastic from other floating material.

2020 Scientific Reports 304 citations
Article Tier 2

Advanced Classification of Marine Pollutants Using Sentinel-2 Multispectral Thermal Imaging and Vision Transformer for Enhanced Water Quality Assessment

This study used satellite multispectral imaging from the Sentinel-2 platform combined with a Vision Transformer machine learning model to automatically classify different types of marine pollutants — including plastics, algae, and oil — from aerial imagery. The AI-based approach significantly outperformed traditional classification methods and could detect plastic debris patches across large ocean areas. Automated large-scale detection of marine plastic pollution from satellites could transform the way we monitor and respond to ocean plastic contamination.

2025 Global NEST Journal 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Large-scale detection of marine debris in coastal areas with Sentinel-2

Researchers built a deep learning model to detect floating marine debris in coastal areas using satellite imagery from the Sentinel-2 program. The system achieved strong detection accuracy across multiple test sites and can monitor large stretches of coastline regularly. The tool could help environmental agencies track and respond to marine plastic pollution at a scale that manual surveys cannot match.

2023 iScience 28 citations
Article Tier 2

Coastal Marine Debris Detection and Density Mapping With Very High Resolution Satellite Imagery

Researchers used high-resolution satellite imagery combined with machine learning to detect and map coastal marine debris density in southern Japan, finding that satellite-based methods can estimate debris amounts and types on beaches with reasonable accuracy.

2022 IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing 25 citations
Article Tier 2

A Combination of Machine Learning Algorithms for Marine Plastic Litter Detection Exploiting Hyperspectral PRISMA Data

Researchers applied a combination of machine learning algorithms to hyperspectral satellite imagery from the PRISMA satellite to detect marine plastic litter along coastlines and ocean surfaces. The multi-algorithm approach improved detection accuracy over single-model methods and demonstrated the potential for satellite-based monitoring of ocean plastic pollution at scale.

2022 Remote Sensing 46 citations
Article Tier 2

Xây dựng bản đồ vị trí bãi rác, bãi chôn lấp, đánh giá nguy cơ thất thoát rác thải nhựa thông qua dữ liệu ảnh vệ tinh có độ phân giải cao từ chương trình Copernicus

Vietnamese researchers used satellite imagery from the Copernicus program to map open landfill sites near waterways and assess their potential to leak plastic waste into water bodies. The analysis found 198 at-risk sites, highlighting how unmanaged land-based plastic waste drives aquatic microplastic contamination.

2023 Journal of Hydro-meteorology
Article Tier 2

Advancing floating macroplastic detection from space using hyperspectral imagery

Researchers evaluated the use of hyperspectral satellite and airborne imagery to detect floating plastic debris in rivers and oceans, addressing major challenges related to plastic spectral properties in field conditions. Remote sensing tools for plastic detection are important for large-scale monitoring of the macro-scale plastic that eventually becomes microplastics.

2021 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Evaluation of microplastic pollution in urban lentic ecosystem using remote sensing, GIS, and Support Vector Machine (SVM): relevance for environmental and ecological risk

Researchers assessed microplastic pollution in 24 urban ponds and lakes in Kolkata, India, finding significantly higher concentrations during the post-monsoon season, with fibers making up about 59% of all particles. They developed machine learning and remote sensing models that achieved up to 98% accuracy in identifying water bodies and predicting microplastic levels from satellite imagery. The study demonstrates that combining field sampling with remote sensing technology can enable large-scale monitoring of urban microplastic pollution.

2026 Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
Article Tier 2

Plastic Waste on Water Surfaces Detection Using Convolutional Neural Networks

Researchers evaluated state-of-the-art convolutional neural network architectures for automatically detecting plastic waste on water surfaces, training models on a dataset representing four categories of plastic litter including plastic bags. The study benchmarked multiple CNN object detection models following extensive dataset preprocessing to determine the most effective approach for automated plastic pollution identification.

2024
Article Tier 2

Machine learning for aquatic plastic litter detection, classification and quantification (APLASTIC-Q)

Researchers developed APLASTIC-Q, a convolutional neural network system trained on very high-resolution aerial imagery from Cambodia, capable of detecting, classifying, and quantifying floating and washed-ashore plastic litter — providing a scalable tool for remote monitoring of aquatic plastic pollution.

2020 Environmental Research Letters 115 citations
Article Tier 2

Time Series approach to map areas of Agricultural Plastic Waste generation

Researchers applied a time-series remote sensing approach to map the spatial distribution of agricultural plastic waste generation across extensive agricultural landscapes, using satellite imagery to detect plastic-mulched farmlands and other agri-plastics to address the lack of comprehensive plasticulture data needed for effective waste management and land-use policy.

2024 ISPRS annals of the photogrammetry, remote sensing and spatial information sciences
Article Tier 2

MARIDA: A benchmark for Marine Debris detection from Sentinel-2 remote sensing data

Researchers created MARIDA, the first benchmark dataset using Sentinel-2 satellite imagery for machine learning-based marine debris detection, distinguishing plastic debris from co-existing features like algae, ships, and various water types across global locations.

2022 PLoS ONE 97 citations
Article Tier 2

Enhanced spatiotemporal mapping of urban wetland microplastics: An interpretable CNN-GRU approach using satellite imagery and limited samples

Researchers built an interpretable CNN-GRU deep learning model combining satellite remote sensing with limited in-situ measurements to map microplastic distribution in urban wetlands with enhanced spatiotemporal resolution, enabling more comprehensive monitoring with less field sampling.

2025 Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety
Article Tier 2

Investigating Detection of Floating Plastic Litter from Space Using Sentinel-2 Imagery

Researchers tested whether Sentinel-2 satellite imagery could detect floating plastic debris on the ocean surface, using a 3 by 10 meter plastic bottle target deployed off Cyprus. A newly developed Plastic Index proved more effective than existing indices at identifying the target, offering a promising tool for large-scale ocean plastic monitoring from space.

2020 Remote Sensing 168 citations
Article Tier 2

Automated Plastic Waste Detection Using Advanced Deep Learning Frameworks

Researchers developed a deep learning system using advanced neural network frameworks for automated detection and classification of plastic waste from images, achieving high accuracy in identifying multiple plastic types to support environmental monitoring and waste sorting.

2025
Article Tier 2

Automatic detection and quantification of floating marine macro-litter in aerial images: Introducing a novel deep learning approach connected to a web application in R

Researchers developed a convolutional neural network-based algorithm to automatically detect and quantify floating marine macro-litter in aerial images, training it on 3,723 images and integrating it into a web application for practical monitoring use.

2021 Environmental Pollution 100 citations
Article Tier 2

Review of Methods for Automatic Plastic Detection in Water Areas Using Satellite Images and Machine Learning

This review surveys methods for automatically detecting floating plastic pollution in water using satellite imagery and machine learning. The study describes key data acquisition techniques and deep learning algorithms being developed to identify plastic accumulation zones, track waste movement, and help address ocean plastic pollution more effectively.

2024 Sensors 11 citations
Article Tier 2

Development of Novel Classification Algorithms for Detection of Floating Plastic Debris in Coastal Waterbodies Using Multispectral Sentinel-2 Remote Sensing Imagery

Researchers developed classification algorithms using Sentinel-2 satellite imagery to detect floating plastic debris in coastal waters near Cyprus and Greece. They tested both unsupervised and supervised methods and found that a semi-supervised fuzzy c-means approach achieved the highest accuracy for identifying plastics. The study demonstrates that remote sensing technology can be an effective tool for monitoring and mapping marine plastic pollution at scale.

2021 Remote Sensing 79 citations
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

Monitoring of Plastic Islands in River Environment Using Sentinel-1 SAR Data

Researchers developed a method using Sentinel-1 SAR satellite data to detect and monitor plastic islands in river environments, demonstrating the potential of radar remote sensing to track plastic debris accumulation following major rain events.

2022 Remote Sensing 23 citations