Detecting the effects of hydrocarbon pollution in the Amazon forest using hyperspectral satellite images

Abstract

The global demand for fossil energy is triggering oil exploration and production projects in remote areas of the world. During the last few decades hydrocarbon production has caused pollution in the Amazon forest inflicting considerable environmental impact. Until now it is not clear how hydrocarbon pollution affects the health of the tropical forest flora. During a field campaign in polluted and pristine forest, more than 1100 leaf samples were collected and analysed for biophysical and biochemical parameters. The results revealed that tropical forests exposed to hydrocarbon pollution show reduced levels of chlorophyll content, higher levels of foliar water content and leaf structural changes. In order to map this impact over wider geographical areas, vegetation indices were applied to hyperspectral Hyperion satellite imagery. Three vegetation indices (SR, NDVI and NDVI705) were found to be the most appropriate indices to detect the effects of petroleum pollution in the Amazon forest.

Remote sensing for detection and monitoring of vegetation affected by oil spills

“…Research has attributed these biochemical alterations in forest areas where oil facilities are located (Arellano et al 2015;Noomen et al 2012). Data in Table 2 shows that there is a high level of significant difference between vegetation at the SS and NSS (NDVI, SAVI, ARVI2 and G-NIR), this might suggest that vegetation at the SS responded spectrally different with the ones at the NSS.…”

“…Changes in mangrove canopy properties from oil spills can be diagnosed through the change in leaf spectral reflectance (Van Der Meer et al 2002). One of the important remote sensing tool used for monitoring oil affected mangroves in the study is the leaf spectral changes as an indicator for detecting vegetation impacted by the oil spills (Hoff et al 2002;Arellano et al 2015). The presence of hydrocarbons in forest sites seems to produce a change in the internal structure of the plant that results in low reflectance values and gas affected areas may also be responsible for low vegetation density (Noomen 2007).…”

“…Relationship between plant vitality and oil/gas pollution can be assessed using spectral indicators (Van Der Meer et al 2002;Arellano et al 2015). Khanna et al (2013), used vegetation indices including NDVI from Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) data to detect vegetation stress and recovery from oil spills in wetland areas of Louisiana, USA.…”

Congo Basin peatlands: threats and conservation priorities

“…Deforestation is not only limited to the pathways of these roads and pipelines, but their construction opens up what was previously inaccessible forest to illegal logging and exposes faunal populations to increased hunting pressures (Finer et al 2008). In addition to this are the risks of oil spills and wastewater damaging the peatland ecology, as observed in parts of Western Amazonia (Finer et al 2008;Arellano et al 2015).…”

An investigation into the factors influencing the detectability of oil spills using spectral indices in an oil-polluted environment

“…It has been suggested that the presence of hydrocarbons seems to produce a change in the internal structure of the plant that results in low reflectance values and oil pollution may also lead to low density of vegetation in the affected areas (Oliveira, Crosta, and Goncalves 1997). In addition, vegetation growing near leaking gas pipelines has been shown to have changes in their geobotany and reflectance (van der Meer et al 2002;Arellano et al 2015). The geobotanical anomalies were associated with the effects of oil spills and pollution on the growth of the vegetation (Noomen et al 2008).…”