Water

In the change detection done at the end of the Vegetation section, it is a little difficult to determine what is going on around the river and mangroves in the bottom right corner of the image. We decided to repeat the study on a larger scale so that we could more easily see the river in its entirety. The ocean is also visible from this view, so that we could also examine the broader effects of groundwater pollution and the river runoff into the ocean.  This is the larger-scale image from February 2000, which is the same year as the first smaller-scale image.



In the image from December of 2012 below, one can see the degree of pollution river and its runoff in the visible.



Below is the change detection map for that area. As before, the dark blue areas represent a negative change (e.g. a decrease in greenness) while the red areas represent a positive change (e.g. an increase in greenness). Now it is easier to see that most of the land has experienced a decrease in greenness, while the rivers and ocean have experienced an increase in greenness. This could be due to algal blooms on the top surface of the rivers and lakes, which is what is detectable by the satellite sensors. Many different types of chemical changes in water composition result in algal blooms, and since electronics contain hundreds of different chemicals and metals, it is very likely that they caused algal blooms in the surrounding rivers and ocean waters.   



In the images below taken from the The Caravan, we can see up close the effects of e-waste contamination by heavy metals and other toxins, on the waters of Korle Lagoon. As mentioned earlier in the essay, this body of water has become one of the most polluted on earth, which is very clearly displayed in the solid e-waste materials floating on the surface and concentrated along its banks.