https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2018/10/25/fight-against-plastic-moves-space-satellites-track-pollution/
Fight against plastic moves to space as satellites track pollution
Satellites are being used to help curb plastic on British coasts for the first time under a government scheme to give free access to high-resolution images from space.
The UK Space Agency’s ‘Space for Smarter Government Programme’ (SSGP) will allow emergency services, government departments and councils to view their neighbourhoods from the sky, to help them plan transport, monitor flooding risk or combat air pollution.
As part of the project the Environment Agency has already begun using satellite images as a tool to monitor plastic pollution off Britain’s shores so it can get clean-up teams to the right places to protect wildlife.
Each year around 380 million tons of plastic are produced globally and at least eight million tonnes end up in the sea. Without urgent action, plastic will outweigh fish by 2050, according to estimates.
The scale of plastic in British waters was revealed in January when Storm Eleanor churned up debris floating in the sea and dumped it on beaches, with experts calculating there was enough to fill 35 large refuse bins for every mile of coastline.
Science Minister Sam Gyimah said: “This is a great example of how we can use great British innovations to help tackle challenges facing us now and in the future.”
The UK Space Agency say the images will provide an unprecedented level of detail of major British cities, transport networks, national parks and energy infrastructure.
In an early pilot of the scheme, Cherwell District Council in Oxfordshire, has been using the images to monitor HGV deliveries to see how they impact bus timetables, congestion and pollution in the hope they could eventually reschedule deliveries to times of day with the least impact on transport and health.
Bournemouth Borough Council is also using the the imagery and machine learning techniques to identify the best locations for electric vehicle charge points in the city.
It is also hoped the Fire Service will start using it to develop response plans for new housing estates, and the Coastguard to track small boats potentially being used for illegal fishing.
And the images could provide early warnings of engineering failures in power stations, railways, roads, gas storage facilities, runways, flood defences and water treatment works.
Sara Huntingdon, the UK Space Agency’s SSGP Manager, said:“Until now there has been a perceived financial barrier to accessing high resolution data from satellites, so this is great news for the UK space sector.
“We are trying something that has not been done before across the whole UK Government, and I am really excited to see the results.”
The images are being provided by Airbus and Telespazio- Vega UK Ltd, from the Spot and Pleiades satellites.
Simon Agass, from the Satellite Applications Catapult, which is working with the UK Space Agency to deliver this project, said: “This could be transformational for government services in the UK and ultimately provide a platform for the export of satellite derived services for governments across the globe.”
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