Papers

20 results
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Article Tier 2

(Micro)plastics from erosion control engineering in China: Environment pollution and prevention strategies

This study highlights that erosion control engineering projects in China — which use large amounts of plastic mesh, bags, and geocells — are a significant but underrecognized source of microplastic pollution. As these plastic products degrade outdoors, they shed fragments that contaminate soil and nearby waterways.

2023
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

An inversion model of microplastics abundance based on satellite remote sensing: a case study in the Bohai Sea

Researchers developed a satellite-based model to estimate microplastic concentrations in China's Bohai Sea using remote sensing data. The model combined water color measurements from satellites with field sampling to predict microplastic distribution across a large area. The study suggests that remote sensing could become a practical tool for monitoring ocean microplastic pollution over wide regions without relying solely on labor-intensive field sampling.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 20 citations
Article Tier 2

Response Time of Vegetation to Drought in Weihe River Basin, China

This is a hydrology study analyzing how vegetation in China's Weihe River Basin responds to drought using satellite vegetation indices; it is not a microplastics research paper.

2023 Atmosphere 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic pollution in an urbanized river affected by water diversion: Combining with active biomonitoring

This study investigated microplastics in an urbanized river subject to water diversion in China, combining passive and active biomonitoring with water and sediment sampling to show that water management practices affect microplastic distribution patterns.

2021 Journal of Hazardous Materials 83 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

A Comprehensive Method for Water Environment Assessment considering Trends of Water Quality

Researchers developed a comprehensive water quality assessment method that accounts for both current pollution levels and trends over time, applying it to rivers feeding a major Chinese reservoir. Water quality assessment frameworks are increasingly being adapted to include microplastic contamination as a standard monitoring parameter.

2021 Advances in Civil Engineering 22 citations
Article Tier 2

Enhancing discharge estimation from SWOT satellite data in a tropical tidal river environment

Researchers developed a methodology to improve river discharge estimates from the SWOT satellite mission in tidally influenced river environments in southern Vietnam. They found that measurement errors from the satellite could be reduced by optimizing the size of river segments analyzed. While not directly related to microplastics, the study advances remote sensing tools that can help monitor coastal water dynamics relevant to understanding pollutant transport in estuarine systems.

2024 PLOS Water 14 citations
Article Tier 2

Optimization and Evaluation of Widely-Used Total Suspended Matter Concentration Retrieval Methods for ZY1-02D’s AHSI Imagery

This study evaluated methods for measuring total suspended matter concentrations in Chinese inland waters using hyperspectral satellite imagery. Remote sensing of water quality is increasingly relevant for monitoring pollution including microplastics in large water bodies.

2022 Remote Sensing 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Advancing hydrological monitoring using image-based techniques: challenges and opportunities

This paper is not about microplastics — it reviews image-based techniques (including remote sensing and computer vision) for hydrological monitoring of water bodies, discussing challenges and opportunities in measuring water flow, flood events, and water quality.

2023 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Analysis of Land Use Evolution of Suzhou Wetlands Based on RS and GIS

Researchers used satellite remote sensing and GIS to track changes in land use and wetland coverage in Suzhou, China over time. Understanding how wetland ecosystems change is important for assessing their capacity to filter pollutants, including microplastics carried by stormwater and runoff.

2023 International Journal of Environment Agriculture and Biotechnology 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Extraction of Surface Water Extent: Automated Thresholding Approaches

This paper is not relevant to microplastics — it evaluates automated thresholding algorithms applied to satellite remote sensing data for mapping surface water extent and monitoring floods and droughts.

2023
Article Tier 2

Estimating microplastic concentrations in surface water using satellite-based turbidity measurements: a case study on the New River, VA

Researchers used satellite-derived turbidity measurements as a proxy for microplastic concentrations in the New River, Virginia, developing and validating a model that enables broader spatial and temporal monitoring of riverine microplastic pollution without intensive field sampling.

2025 VTechWorks (Virginia Tech)
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
Article Tier 2

Secchi Disk Depth Estimation from China’s New Generation of GF-5 Hyperspectral Observations Using a Semi-Analytical Scheme

Researchers validated a satellite-based method for estimating water clarity (Secchi disk depth) in Chinese lakes using hyperspectral imagery. While focused on remote sensing of water quality, such tools can be applied to monitoring microplastic distribution in aquatic environments by proxy.

2020 Remote Sensing 26 citations
Article Tier 2

Satellite sensors as an emerging technique for monitoring macro- and microplastics in aquatic ecosystems

This review assessed the emerging use of satellite remote sensing technologies for monitoring macro- and microplastic pollution in aquatic ecosystems, evaluating current capabilities and limitations of different satellite sensors for detecting waterborne plastic debris.

2022 Water Emerging Contaminants & Nanoplastics 28 citations
Article Tier 2

Spatiotemporal changes in land use and residential satisfaction in the Huai River-Gaoyou Lake Rim area

Researchers used two decades of satellite data to track land use changes and ecological risks in China's Jiangsu Province, focusing on shifts between agricultural, urban, and wetland areas. Land use changes alter how plastic waste and microplastics are transported and deposited in freshwater ecosystems.

2023 Open Geosciences 1 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

Eco-Asset Variations and Their Driving Factors in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, China, under the Context of Global Change

This paper is not relevant to microplastics research — it analyzes ecological asset changes and their environmental drivers on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau using remote sensing data.

2023 Sustainability 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Riverine Microplastic Quantification: A Novel Approach Integrating Satellite Images, Neural Network, and Suspended Sediment Data as a Proxy

Researchers developed satellite-based models using neural network algorithms to estimate riverine microplastic concentrations, using suspended sediment concentration as a proxy, offering a cost-effective approach for broad-scale freshwater microplastic monitoring.

2023 Sensors 23 citations