S.E.W.A.G.E. Team

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guEsWhnrNmY

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L_gAa5EYLfOoLYCh7CU8lcpkzFtefLuqJ5pjPu0511A/edit?usp=sharing

Eutrophication is a chain reaction including algal blooms, dead zones and fish kills resulting from sewages produced by humans. Development on the upper streams of the drainage area of water reservoirs has resulted in reduction of water quality. Due to insufficient water processing facilities, waste water from both agriculture and households contaminate the water sources. With the help of satellite images, scientists have noticed the problem of eutrophication and are able to better monitor it. 

Our objective is to find evidence through articles or papers to prove that the use of satellite images and datas can improve the situation of eutrophication through the alteration of policy-making or regulation-making. Furthermore, investigate the potential environmental and economical cost if the eutrophication worsened and the cost of adopting sewage processing systems at the upper stream areas.

Our approach

1. Review and collect real-world cases : We have found many cases about governments using satellites to monitor the eutrophication of reservoirs. For example, a research team from KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology) used imagery data from NASA’s MODIS-Aqua satellite to monitor harmful algal blooms and relevant parameters. In Taiwan, the government has utilized satellite images in different fields and achieved many successful cases, one of which is monitoring eutrophication of Feitsui reservoir using Landsat 7. Moreover, we browsed through NASA Earth Observatory Project, and refer to some relevant satellite images and cases.
2. After searching some cases, we delve into the background of it. What indexes or features are related to the standard of eutrophication? How does the satellite monitor the algal bloom? How do satellites detect the concentration or the amount of phytoplanktons and macrophytes? 
3. We analyze the data provided by each project or case, and hope that the analysis can prove that the intervention of satellite datas makes substantial contributions to the improvement of policy-making and the situation of eutrophications.

The data are obtained through NASA Earth Observatory ,which provides many scientific informations, NASA Ocean Color, which provides oceanic features and datas, and SPOT開放資料平台, which provides real-time satellite images from different satellites. Below are two successful satellite-image-aided cases we refer to.

1. In the case of “Remote sensing of harmful algal blooms” by a research team from KAUST, they used the images and datas from the satellite MODIS-Aqua to observe the situation of harmful algal bloom.  

2. Algae abound along Florida coast. The harmful algae Karenia breves showed up substantially. The image is collected through MODIS-aqua.

3. The Taiwan government uses SPOT satellites to monitor the euphorification situation. It is divided into three categories, oligotrophic (blue), mesotrophic (green) and eutrophic(red), depending on total phosphate, chlorophyll-a and transparency. By analyzing the gravity and distribution, the government gets to find out the optimal solution to deal with the problem of severe eutrophication. 

Before the hackason started, we learned that the only person in our team who is familiar with coding is busy with another competition, what are the odds? Skimming through the many challenges, we quickly eliminated down to four choices that require no coding and are heavy on story-telling. After a brief discussion we settled on “Measuring the value of earth observation”. Starting from the resources on the website, we look at the implementation of satellite imaging. One of which, the example “valuing satellite data for harmful algal bloom early warning system” caught our attention, as water-scarcity is a serious issue in Taiwan and eutrophication was mentioned in our textbooks. Thus, we look further into eutrophication and satellite imaging detection in Taiwan and also examples aboard. We learned that several water reservoirs, according to information from SPOT and Landsat 7, have eutrophicated. Then, we searched for government policies that address this problem, and learned a new project is underway. For the last part of this challenge, we think about the potential cost if this government decision isn’t made, and the cost of building the project. At the end of this challenge we have learned more about satellite images, some of which are reviews of our long-forgotten high school materials. This is our first time to do the challenges, we hope to come back next year better equipped, with an open mind and curiosity to learn more about the world.

1. Space for US: https://www.nasa.gov/SpaceforUS/
2. Remote sensing of harmful algal blooms https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0215463#ack
3. Application of Satellite Images to Monitoring the Eutrophication of Shihman Reservoir: http://www.ce.nchu.edu.tw/Pic/Writings/1480_M2_full.pdf
4. 106 年北區水庫水質永續管理計畫 https://www-ws.wra.gov.tw/001/Upload/oldFile//media/21947/%E5%8F%AF%E8%A1%8C02-106%E5%B9%B4%E5%8C%97%E5%8D%80%E6%B0%B4%E5%BA%AB%E6%B0%B4%E8%B3%AA%E6%B0%B8%E7%BA%8C%E7%AE%A1%E7%90%86%E8%A8%88%E7%95%AB.pdf
5. 行政院環境保護署 河川水質季監測資料 大漢溪總磷量 https://data.epa.gov.tw/dataset/wqx_p_12/resource/cc9cb6c2-bc3c-4d02-a05a-77c04b8e1aee?custom_filters=River,EQ,%E5%A4%A7%E6%BC%A2%E6%BA%AA%7CItemName,EQ,%E7%B8%BD%E7%A3%B7
6. 行政院環境保護署 水庫水質監測網 石門水庫卡爾森指數https://wq.epa.gov.tw/EWQP/zh/EnvWaterMonitoring/Reservoir.aspx
7. https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/eutrophication-causes-consequences-and-controls-in-aquatic-102364466/
8. Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem: https://pace.gsfc.nasa.gov
9. Algae Abound Along Florida Coast: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/148590/algae-abound-along-florida-coast
10. Carlson's TSIhttps://wq.epa.gov.tw/EWQP/zh/Encyclopedia/NounDefinition/Pedia_18.aspx
11. http://chur.chu.edu.tw/bitstream/987654321/3600/1/GE095040160.pdf

#Satellite, #Eutrophication, #Science, #Data, #WaterQualityMatters