Freshwater

Illuminating threats to freshwater

Water is the lifeblood of human and ecological communities, and is particularly vulnerable to pollution from extractive activities. Much of SkyTruth’s work on freshwater relates to the location and extent of extractive activities such as mining and the waste impoundments they generate. Our work provides researchers, advocates, and policymakers critical data that has illuminated the harmful human impacts of these extractive activities and informed decision making.

Freshwater issues and threats

Mountaintop
mining

SkyTruth updates its map of mountaintop mining in Central Appalachia annually to illuminate the spread of this destructive practice. We currently are developing metrics to document recovery at previously mined sites.

Hydraulic fracturing
(fracking)

SkyTruth Alerts sends email alerts on new drilling activity in key states. Our web app of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania allows anyone to visualize the impact of drilling on local communities. SkyTruth is detecting oil and gas activities in remote locations using machine learning algorithms.

Harmful algal
blooms

SkyTruth has partnered with researchers at Kent State University to flag toxic algal blooms.

Working with Brendan on the SkyTruth team was a pleasure for me and my students. SkyTruth learned our complex analytical approach to mapping Harmful Algal Blooms and helped us implement it in the cloud using Google Earth Engine and Python programming. And they provided our team at KSU with intensive hands-on training, so now we can expand our work with new sources of satellite data and apply our analysis anywhere in the world.

Joe Ortiz, Ph.D.Kent State University