Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Environmental Monitoring
Lowering barriers to probing high-frequency variations in river chemistry through a frugal machine learning-based framework
Published: 2026-04-11
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Environmental Monitoring, Hydrology, Water Resource Management
High-frequency river chemistry monitoring is crucial for capturing transient hydro-geochemical variations and ensuring water security, yet its implementation is limited by logistical and budgetary constraints. Here we present a machine learning-based framework that integrates continuous, low-cost physico-chemical proxies with sparse ‘anchoring’ solute measurements to reconstruct hourly-scale [...]
An End-to-End Workflow for Processing Multilingual Stakeholder Workshop Data: A Soil Health Case Study
Published: 2026-04-11
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Environmental Monitoring, Soil Science
This paper presents an end-to-end workflow for the collection, analysis, and dissemination of multilingual stakeholder workshop data related to soil health. Stakeholder workshops often produce diverse qualitative and ordinal data which is difficult to process consistently and transparently, especially in multilingual settings. The proposed workflow provides clear guidance for collecting, [...]
Quantifying the Regional Dynamics and Redistribution of Physical Vulnerability in Least Developed Countries
Published: 2026-04-09
Subjects: Categorical Data Analysis, Civil Engineering, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Geographic Information Sciences, Other Computer Sciences, Physical and Environmental Geography, Remote Sensing, Spatial Science, Structural Engineering
In the margins of the accelerating development of digital technology worldwide are the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), which continually face an exacerbated risk crisis at the intersection of rapid rural-urban growth, persistent physical vulnerability, and intensifying climate hazards. Despite decades of international development commitments, the rate of built-up expansion across LDCs has [...]
Multi-Sensor Monitoring of Wetland Inundation Using a Machine Learning and Data Fusion Framework
Published: 2026-04-04
Subjects: Applied Statistics, Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Statistics and Probability
Continuous, high-resolution inundation data are needed to understand how small-scale, short-term wetland flooding influences global methane emissions and carbon cycling. Small (less than 1,000 m²), variably inundated wetlands are significant methane sources, yet coarse satellite products often miss their dynamics. Integrating optical and radar imagery with resolutions less than 30 m offers a [...]
Satellite Validation of Citizen Science Marine Pollution Data: Multi-Site Correlation Analysis of Sentinel-2 Floating Debris Index and EyeSea Ground-Truth Reports
Published: 2026-03-28
Subjects: Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Natural Resources and Conservation
We present the first multi-site correlation analysis between the Sentinel-2 Floating Debris Index (FDI) and community-reported marine pollution data from the EyeSea citizen science platform. Across three geographically diverse coastal sites—Vasai-Virar (India), Santa Cruz, Galápagos (Ecuador), and Puerto Montt (Chile)—8,123 geotagged beach pollution reports were analysed against 91 Sentinel-2 L2A [...]
Dataset of DInSAR wrapped phase signals for AI-based automated detection and classification of mass movements
Published: 2026-03-26
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
With the growing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in remote sensing of mass movements, available datasets for model training and validation are increasingly needed. Although Differential Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (DInSAR) is a widely used technique for studying mass movements, wrapped interferograms remain less exploited, and the importance of geomorphological expertise in their [...]
Urban Green Cover and Land Surface Temperature in Ho Chi Minh City: A Remote Sensing Analysis of Vegetation Cooling Effects Across Historical Development Rings, 1990–2025
Published: 2026-03-26
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring
Ho Chi Minh City's 11.3 million residents live in a landscape shaped by four political regimes — French colonial, wartime, socialist, and market-era — each of which built the city it needed and left the green space debt for the next. Using Sentinel-2 and Landsat satellite imagery from 1990 to 2025, we map vegetation cover and surface temperature across the city at 100-meter resolution and trace [...]
Geospatial Modelling of Vegetation Dynamics and Carbon Sequestration Capacity in Ekiti State, Nigeria Using MODIS Data and CASA Models.
Published: 2026-03-23
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Geographic Information Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Physical and Environmental Geography, Remote Sensing, Spatial Science, Sustainability
Accurate estimation of terrestrial carbon sequestration capacity is fundamental to national climate mitigation efforts and achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study assessed vegetation dynamics and modelled Net Primary Productivity (NPP) a proxy for carbon sequestration capacity in Ekiti State, Nigeria, over the 11-year period (2014–2024). The study deployed the seasonal and [...]
Probabilistic modelling of pharmaceutical pollution risk from sewage treatment work discharges using a Bayesian Network: application to a Scottish river catchment
Published: 2026-03-16
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Pharmacology, Toxicology and Environmental Health, Statistical Models, Statistics and Probability, Water Resource Management
Pharmaceuticals are increasingly recognised as a class of emerging contaminants of concern in rivers. Their continuous release from human use and variable removal in sewage treatment works (STWs) can produce ecologically relevant concentrations and contribute to antimicrobial resistance. We developed a probabilistic catchment-scale model based on a Bayesian Network (BN) to quantify pharmaceutical [...]
A terrain-aware approach for image-based urban flood monitoring
Published: 2026-03-13
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Water Resource Management
Urban nuisance flooding is widespread, yet quantitative observations of its magnitude and spatial variability remain limited. Most image-based approaches provide only relative measures of flooded image fraction, while quantitative methods require surveyed ground control and three-dimensional reconstruction. We introduce a terrain aware, perspective weighted framework that converts flooded image [...]
Nationwide deadwood mapping reveals rising mountain forests vulnerability
Published: 2026-03-12
Subjects: Climate, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Forest Sciences
Forest mortality is increasing globally under climate change, making detailed, large-scale monitoring essential for understanding ecosystem responses and guiding adaptive forest management. Here, we present a spatio-temporal assessment of standing deadwood in Switzerland from 2018 to 2023, derived from centimeter-scale high-resolution aerial imagery. We reveal a consistent upslope concentration [...]
Evaluating global spectral unmixing techniques using imaging spectroscopy data for retrieval of green, non-photosynthetic vegetation, and soil fractional cover
Published: 2026-03-12
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Remote Sensing, Soil Science
Global estimates of fractional cover of green vegetation (GV), non-photosynthetic vegetation (NPV), and soil provide valuable information about the Earth system. As the new generation of Earth visible-to-shortwave infrared (VSWIR) imaging spectrometers take orbit, global fractional cover data will be obtainable with new and improved spectral unmixing algorithms. Using an ASD Field Spectrometer [...]
snowman: an open-source R package for automated 30-m snow and ice cover mapping using the Landsat archive
Published: 2026-03-06
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Glaciology, Hydrology, Water Resource Management
Seasonal snow and ice cover are critical components of the cryosphere yet mapping their dynamics at ecologically relevant spatiotemporal scales remains challenging. Here I present snowman, an open-source R package and algorithm for automated mapping of snow and ice cover dynamics at 30-m resolution using Landsat satellite imagery (1982–present). The algorithm combines globally trained [...]
Assessing the medium-term risk to reef damage and rubble generation for the Great Barrier Reef
Published: 2026-03-06
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Oceanography, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Coral reef systems live in multi-hazard environments and are exposed to a wide range of disturbance events that operate at different spatial and temporal scales. We identify seven drivers derived from hazards that have and can result in reef damage in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR): waves, winds, bottom current velocity, coral bleaching, crown-of-thorns seastar outbreaks, ship groundings, and [...]
Declining Snowpack in the Presence of Stable Precipitation May Not Negatively Impact Baseflow or Floodplain Vegetation in the Middle Fork Rock Creek Watershed, Montana, USA
Published: 2026-02-28
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Natural Resources and Conservation
In the age of snow droughts and megafires, water availability and changes in precipitation, snowpack, and baseflows are active areas of research. Headwater streams are where all large rivers begin, but their seasonal water availability is difficult to measure because they are so abundant and remote. Remote sensing can help monitor small streams semi-arid areas if there is an appropriate proxy for [...]