| Abstract Submission No. | ABS-01-0046 |
| Title of Abstract | Detection of Marine Debris Using high resolution satellite Imagery: A Promising Approach for the Effective Monitoring and Management for the Indian coast. |
| Authors | Jishad M*, Devanshi Kotecha, Surisetty VV Arun Kumar, Rashmi Sharma, Neeraj Agarwal |
| Organisation | Space Applications Centre- ISRO |
| Address | Oceanic Sciences Division, AOSG, EPSA, Space Applications Centre, ISRO Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India Pincode: 380015 E-mail: jishad1hm@gmail.com |
| Country | India |
| Presentation | Oral |
| Abstract | Marine debris (MD) are a global environmental issue with harmful effects on marine ecosystems. To effectively manage and mitigate this problem and create a better living environment, it is crucial to detect and monitor MD. Remote sensing has emerged as a promising method for detecting marine debris by making use of high resolution Earth Observation satellites with Multispectral instrument. In this study an attempt has been made to delineate the signatures of marine debris in the satellite observations from other effects. To this end, an image processing technique was developed to identify marine debris from satellite images using various spectral bands of Sentinel-2. The detection of floating materials on subpixel scales relied on two key indexes: the Floating Debris Index (FDI) and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). Spectral signatures were used to identify the dominant materials within pixels on the ocean surface from space. The reflectance intensity was primarily determined by the proportion of floating plastic within the pixels. Once the pixels containing floating debris were identified, an un-mixing algorithm was employed to filter out noise pixels. The technique was applied to Sentinel-2 data for the period 2021-2022 for various Indian coasts (Goa, Mumbai, Chennai, Kochi and Gujarat). At Mumbai and Chennai coasts a clear time variation of MD was observed during the study period, while no definite signatures were found along the Gujarat coast in the dataset. This approach has the potential to become a valuable tool in the fight against marine debris, aiding in the efforts to clean up our oceans. |
| Keywords | Marine Debris,FDI,NDVI,unmixing |
| For Awards | yes |