Landfill Monitoring: A Global Problem
Landfill Monitoring is a current problem for the management of territories, considering that in the last three decades there has been a growing global concern about the impacts on public health attributed to environmental pollution. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that about a quarter of the diseases that afflict humanity today occur due to prolonged exposure to environmental pollution. In this regard, it should be remembered that:
- Improper solid waste management is a major cause of environmental pollution and degradation in many cities and suburban areas, particularly in developing countries.
- Many of these cities do not have solid waste regulations and adequate disposal facilities, even for harmful waste. Such wastes can be carcinogenic, toxic or even radioactive. Municipal landfills are designated places for waste disposal. Depending on a city’s level of waste management, such waste can be dumped uncontrollably, separated for recycling purposes or simply burned. In some situations, crime can also be involved in the waste management process causing dangerous and unpredictable consequences.
- Poor waste management poses a major challenge to the well-being of city residents, particularly those living adjacent to landfills due to the potential of waste to pollute water, food sources, land, air and vegetation. Inadequate disposal and management of waste therefore lead to environmental degradation, the destruction of the ecosystem and pose great risks to public health.
Recycling and composting of waste have grown over the past decade across Europe, but most countries continue to landfill most of their waste, despite obligations to recycle half of the waste by 2020. Data released by Eurostat (2018) show that, on average, 23% of the 490 kg of waste that each European generates ends up in landfills, 30% is recycled and 17% is composted. About 28% is burned, typically for energy. The figures show a huge gap between a handful of countries – led by the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark – that have phased out landfills while most other EU nations continue to dump most of their waste.
Although the number of landfills in EU countries has decreased significantly over the past 10-15 years, mainly through the closure of landfills and other low-level sites, the problem of monitoring abandoned landfills still remains very urgent and topical. On the contrary, the number of illegal and uncontrolled landfills in Europe is constantly increasing; the latest estimate made in 2010 listed, in Italy alone, over 5,000 unauthorized contaminated areas covering 2,000 hectares of surface, but it is suspected that these figures are highly underestimated. The above numbers become alarming in particular areas of Italy where mafia-type criminal organizations are deeply involved in the legal process of waste disposal.
Landfill Monitoring is a current problem for the management of territories, considering that in the last three decades there has been a growing global concern about the impacts on public health attributed to environmental pollution. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that about a quarter of the diseases that afflict humanity today occur due to prolonged exposure to environmental pollution. In this regard, it should be remembered that:
- Improper solid waste management is a major cause of environmental pollution and degradation in many cities and suburban areas, particularly in developing countries.
- Many of these cities do not have solid waste regulations and adequate disposal facilities, even for harmful waste. Such wastes can be carcinogenic, toxic or even radioactive. Municipal landfills are designated places for waste disposal. Depending on a city’s level of waste management, such waste can be dumped uncontrollably, separated for recycling purposes or simply burned. In some situations, crime can also be involved in the waste management process causing dangerous and unpredictable consequences.
- Poor waste management poses a major challenge to the well-being of city residents, particularly those living adjacent to landfills due to the potential of waste to pollute water, food sources, land, air and vegetation. Inadequate disposal and management of waste therefore lead to environmental degradation, the destruction of the ecosystem and pose great risks to public health.
Recycling and composting of waste have grown over the past decade across Europe, but most countries continue to landfill most of their waste, despite obligations to recycle half of the waste by 2020. Data released by Eurostat (2018) show that, on average, 23% of the 490 kg of waste that each European generates ends up in landfills, 30% is recycled and 17% is composted. About 28% is burned, typically for energy. The figures show a huge gap between a handful of countries – led by the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark – that have phased out landfills while most other EU nations continue to dump most of their waste.
Although the number of landfills in EU countries has decreased significantly over the past 10-15 years, mainly through the closure of landfills and other low-level sites, the problem of monitoring abandoned landfills still remains very urgent and topical. On the contrary, the number of illegal and uncontrolled landfills in Europe is constantly increasing; the latest estimate made in 2010 listed, in Italy alone, over 5,000 unauthorized contaminated areas covering 2,000 hectares of surface, but it is suspected that these figures are highly underestimated. The above numbers become alarming in particular areas of Italy where mafia-type criminal organizations are deeply involved in the legal process of waste disposal.
Satellites for Landfill and Territory Monitoring
In a framework such as the one outlined, the use of a tool capable of periodically monitoring large areas of the territory appears essential to take care of the health of the population.
Landfills are permanent deposits of solid urban waste and deriving from various human activities. The Italian legislation defines the surveillance plan, specifying the frequency of checks to be carried out to establish the temporal evolution of the monitored quantities. In particular, careful management of the site is envisaged both during the operational phase and after closure, setting up a monitoring activity on the site and the surrounding context, to assess possible contamination resulting from the landfill.
The SIMDEO project, the numerous studies and experience gained in the sector, have demonstrated the great advantage of Remote-Sensing techniques applied to the study of waste landfills, more precisely through EO data it is possible to:
- the estimation of the quantity of waste stored in landfills;
- In situ management of the landfill (operations support);
- Monitoring of the evolution of the landfill over time (compliance with procedures and regulations, prevention of pollution risk);
- The environmental impact that the landfill has on the surrounding context.
The site analysis includes the volumetric analysis from SAR data (Cosmo SkyMed) and a chemical analysis deriving from the integration of satellite optical sensors (Sentinel) and satellite and non-satellite thermal sensors, to evaluate any contamination that the landfill it would be generating in the surrounding environment.
Satellite Image Processing Techniques for Landfill Monitoring
With the Simdeo project, significant and encouraging results have been achieved in the field of SAR imaging of interferometric techniques applied to controlled landfills. Interferometry is a technique widely used for the estimation of small changes, but which is applied to the limit of its possibilities in contexts affected by low coherences such as in the case of landfills. The displacements identified by the analysis of the Cosmo images returned values compatible with the deviations measured on field.
Pairs of CosmoSkyMed SAR images processed to generate coherence maps, can highlight those areas in which changes have occurred in the territory considered.
In a complementary way, the Multispectral and Hyperspectral optical sensors can provide additional information about the contamination and impact of landfills on the surrounding area. In fact, by resorting to vegetation indices, it is possible to estimate and classify anomalous variations with respect to the state of health of the vegetation.
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