Assessing Vegetation Decline due to Pollution from Waste Cycle Activities by a Multitemporal Remote-Sensing Approach

• DOI: 10.20944/preprints202111.0289.v1
• Publication Date: 2021-11-17T10:41:12Z
• Authors: Giuseppe Mancino; Rodolfo Console; Michele Greco; Chiara Iacovino; Maria Lucia Trivigno; Antonio Falciano
• Keywords: Thematic Mapper; Trend analysis

The work consisted in identifying possible effects from heavy metals (HMs) pollution due to waste disposal activities three potentially polluted sites located Basilicata (Italy), where a release of pollutants with values over the thresholds allowed by Italian legislation was detected. potential variations physiological efficiency vegetation have been analyzed through multitemporal processing satellite images. In detail, Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) and 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) images were used calculate Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) trend years. Then, trends using median Theil-Sen, non-parametric estimator particularly suitable for treatment remote sensing data, being able minimize outlier exogenous factors. Finally, subsequent application Mann-Kendall test on identified Theil-Sen slope evaluation significance and, therefore, areas characterized contamination vegetation. procedure survey led exclusion presence significant HMs surrounding during years activities.