SPACE MONITORING OF ANTHROPOGENIC IMPACTS ON SOILS AND THE WATER ENVIRONMENT ASSOCIATED WITH SOLID DOMESTIC WASTE: SCIENTIFIC AND EDUCATIONAL ASPECTS (SPACE ENVIRONMENTAL WATCH)

Abstract

A new technology of monitoring and control of solid waste, based on the reception and processing of the Earth remote sensing data with different spatial resolution and spectral resolution is proposed. The technology is based on the processing of multispectral and hyperspectral images from space in special software products, the identification and analysis of solid waste from small (suburban, road clutter) to large (industrial and urban landfills), depending on the spatial and spectral resolution of the space image. At present, software complexes for processing (deciphering) of space images of solid domestic waste and their adjacent territories have been developed. With the help of these software complexes, it became possible to identify unauthorized landfills, to determine the correctness of operation of existing landfills in accordance with existing regulatory documents, to determine the sequence of liquidation of various landfills, depending on the degree of their negative impact on the environment and human health. The introduction of the proposed technology can provide substantial assistance to various ministries, departments and the public in detecting at an early stage the places of clutter, the so-called pre-landfills, which, if not to take preventive measures, can become real garbage dumps with all the ensuing environmental problems. It is important that schools and universities, for which this work will be attractive both in terms of planning and implementation of research activities, education of young people with an active life position in terms of ecology and environmental protection, be included in the implementation of the "Space Ecological Watch" project. It should be borne in mind that SHW landfills are basically "the reactors" in which various physical-chemical reactions (combustion, oxidation, etc.) are rapidly occurring; besides SWLs are of considerable interest for educational and research processes both in secondary and higher schools. Moreover, many parameters of these physical-chemical reactions in the time-mode, close to the real one, can be controlled by methods of remote sensing of the Earth from space. We propose to organize the International Competition "Space Environmental Watch" with the participation of students and schoolchildren from different countries of the world. This Competition will be based on the technology described above, will have the following nominations: - identification of unauthorized landfills; - landfills Information validity check; - assessment of the impact of solid waste landfills on the environment. According to the results of the competition, a digital map with identified unauthorized garbage dumps and an assessment of their impact on the environment can be made on the Internet.