Turning Ocean Data Intelligence into Health Protection
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Blogs
More from Poseidon & Partners
Group on Earth Observations (GEO) blog: Mapping the Plastic Crisis from Space
GeoAI Podcast: Raising Awareness & Saving Our Seas (with NOAA, USGS, NRCan)
Pilot Resources: Engineering Report & Pilot Webinar
Whitepapers
Poseidon STAC Catalog
To increase accessibility & transparency, we've established a SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog (STAC) — a structured, open-data platform enabling:
Researchers & policymakers to explore Sentinel-2 satellite imagery of plastic pollution
Data-driven intervention strategies based on real-time geospatial insights
Efficient global collaboration for ocean plastic tracking
Poseidon Plastic Tracking System
Toxins are increasing across ecosystems and the food chain due in part to the plastic pollution in our oceans and waterways. Concern has risen that this plastic has entered fish and other sea life, which then lead to potentially dangerous levels of bioaccumulated toxins in humans who consume that food supply.
While not yet conclusive, research suggests this bioaccumulation of plastics, microplastics, and their associated toxins harms human health. To help address this concern, HSR.health developed a Poseidon Plastic Tracking System to identify the presence and quantity of plastics in our oceans where populations at-risk from such exposure - short and long term - live.
Benefits
This dataset allows for:
- The identification of populations at-risk for adverse health outcomes from bioaccumulation exposure.
- The identification of plastic accumulation in our oceans and waterways.
- The trend of this accumulation over time, which is key to implementing measures to assess the short — and long — term impacts of plastics on our environment and the health of all living creatures in the environment.
- The development of policies to manage microplastic pollution, especially near regions with vulnerable ecosystems and populations.
Spatial Coverage
Poseidon and its underlying datasets have been calculated for Canada and the North American Arctic. These dataset can be made available for any region or body of water globally.
Temporal Coverage
2010 - Current. Incorporating historical trend analysis, continuous updates, as well as forecasting across multiple years can be accomplished upon request based on the temporal coverage of the underlying datasets. Sea Surface Plastic detection is a current snapshot taken at the time the dataset is created.
Process Description
Poseidon's Plastic Bioaccumulation Health Risk Index is based on the health and social factors influencing a person's vulnerability to adverse health outcomes from bioaccumulation of plastics and includes factors such as - age, chronic health conditions, and whether pregnant or breastfeeding. Additionally, leveraging imagery from the Sentinel-2 satellite constellation along with map algebra algorithms from Sentinel Hub (Sentinel Hub 2023) and a plastic detection equation from a peer-reviewed study (Biermann, L., Clewley, D., Martinez-Vicente, V. et al. 2020), we can identify plastic presence in oceans and waterways globally. Alternative methods for feature extraction are available upon request.
Data Availability
The dataset is available in multiple formats, partially including:
- Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFF
- CSV
- PNG
- Web Map Service
- Web Feature Service
- OGC API
- Geo-JSON
- GeoParquet
- Spatio Temporal Asset Catalog
- and other user-specified formats.
Impact@HSR.health | +1 240-731-0756 | View our Poseidon Case for Support