Case Study: EOMAP enables early warning for river pollution with Planet satellite monitoring

Fish Die-off in the Oder River Satellite-based Monitoring as an Early Warning System for Freshwater Pollution

EOMAP, a provider of satellite-derived water quality data, faced the challenge of investigating the catastrophic 2022 fish die-off in the Oder River. Manual water sampling was too slow and spatially limited to trace the pollution's source, making it difficult for authorities to react in time. Partnering with researchers at UFZ, they required a data source to enable a comprehensive analysis.

By utilizing the Planet Archive and data from Planet's SuperDove satellites, EOMAP gained access to near-daily, high-resolution imagery. This solution enabled them to retrospectively reconstruct the event, identifying a toxic algal bloom fueled by saline discharges as the primary cause. The result was a conclusive causal understanding of the disaster, demonstrating how Planet's data could serve as the foundation for an early warning system to monitor river health and prevent future ecological crises.

EOMAP

Dietrich Borchardt

Professor