Assessment of airborne and spaceborne thermal infrared remote sensing for detecting and characterizing landfills

Abstract

This work deals with the application of thermal infrared remote sensing for landfill management. It aims to address two research questions: (i) Can we detect all past and present landfills using spaceborne data archive, and (ii) is airborne remote sensing an efficient tool for landfill site characterization? The results extracted from the spaceborne data analysis show that the detection of landfills is possible during their activity phase. The importance of the context of acquisition is highlighted by the application of the developed detection methods for distinct geographical contexts. High spatial resolution airborne data acquired at dawn proves to be a relevant information source for the characterization of thermal anomalies present on multiple landfills. © 2014 WIT Press.