Overview
Toxins are increasing across ecosystems and the food chain due in part to the plastic pollution in our oceans and waterways. Concern has risen that this plastic has entered fish
and other sea life, which then lead to potentially dangerous levels of bioaccumulated toxins in humans who consume that food supply.
While not yet conclusive, research suggests this bioaccumulation of plastics, microplastics, and their associated toxins harms human health. To help address this concern,
HSR.health developed a Poseidon Plastic Tracking System to identify the presence and quantity of plastics in our oceans where populations at-risk from such exposure - short and long
term - live.
Canadian Arctic Plastic Bioaccumulation Health Risk Index
HSR.health Canadian Arctic Plastic Bioaccumulation Health Risk Index Developed as a persistent demonstrator for the Open Geospatial Consortium's 2023 Federated Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure Pilot.
Explore the Plastic Bioaccumulation Health Risk Index on the Open GeoMD Platform!Benefits
This dataset allows for:
- The identification populations at-risk for adverse health outcomes from bioaccumulation exposure.
- The identification of plastic accumulation in our oceans and waterways.
- The trend of this accumulation over time, which is key to implementing measures to assess the short — and long — term impacts of plastics on our environment and the health of all living creatures in the environment.
- The development of policies to manage microplastic pollution, especially near regions with vulnerable ecosystems and populations.
Spatial Coverage
The Plastic Bioaccumulation Health Risk Index and its underlying datasets have been calculated for Canada and the North American Arctic. These dataset can be made available for any region or body of water globally.
Temporal Coverage
2010 – Current. Incorporating historical trend analysis, continuous updates, as well as forecasting across multiple years can be accomplished upon request based on the temporal coverage of the underlying datasets. Sea Surface Plastic detection is a current snapshot taken at the time the dataset is created.
Process Description
The Plastic Bioaccumulation Health Risk Index is based on the health and social factors influencing a person's vulnerability to adverse health outcomes from bioaccumulation including - age, chronic health conditions, and pregnant or breastfeeding mothers. Additionally, Leveraging imagery from the Sentinel-2 satellite constellation along with map algebra algorithms from Sentinel Hub (Sentinel Hub 2023) and a plastic detection equation from a peer-reviewed study (Biermann, L., Clewley, D., Martinez-Vicente, V. et al. 2020), we can identify plastic presence in oceans and waterways globally. Alternative methods for feature extraction are available upon request.
Data Availability
The dataset is available in multiple formats, partially including:
- Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFF
- CSV
- PNG
- Web Map Service
- Web Feature Service
- OGC API
- Geo-JSON
- GeoParquet
- Spatio Temporal Asset Catalog
- and other user-specified formats.
Poseidon Plastic Tracking System: Protecting Oceans, Safeguarding Lives
Poseidon orchestrates diverse data and technology including geospatial visualization, AI/ML analytics, satellite imagery, and advanced simulations to forecast the impacts of plastic contamination and guide interventions that protect both the environment and public health.
How You Can Help
Support our campaign to expand Poseidon globally! Through your support, you empower decision-makers and advocates to take action where it’s needed most—today and in the future.
For more information on how Poseidon is fighting ocean plastic pollution, watch our Raising Awareness & Saving Our Seas webinar and read our Engineering Report, and recent blogs.