Hofmann, B. and Noble, J. and Terlinden-Ruhl, L. (2025) Detecting coastal sewage spills using earth observation technologies. In: EGU25, 15-19 December 2025, New Orleans, USA.
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Sewage spills into coastal waters pose serious environmental and public health concerns. These events are typically caused by overwhelmed sewerage systems, failures at wastewater treatment facilities, or the complete absence of treatment infrastructure. The resulting pollution can degrade water quality, harm marine ecosystems, and pose risks to human health. This project investigated the potential of Earth Observation (EO) technologies to detect sewage spills from a variety of system types, across different geographic regions, and under varying oceanographic conditions. We used multispectral data and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) due to their different properties and machine learning techniques to identify the spills. For example, fats, oils, and greases, which are components of sewage, can form surface slicks, which can dampen wave activity in a manner similar to oil spills, which in turn can be identified using SAR. We present the results of these evaluations, highlighting both the strengths and the limitations of each approach.
| Item Type: | Conference or Workshop Item (Poster) |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | Coasts > General |
| Divisions: | Coastal |
| Depositing User: | Helen Stevenson |
| Date Deposited: | 03 Dec 2025 15:01 |
| Last Modified: | 03 Dec 2025 15:01 |
| URI: | http://eprints.hrwallingford.com/id/eprint/1715 |
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