Terrestrial oil spill mapping using satellite earth observation and machine learning: A case study in South Sudan.

Terrestrial oil spills are a major threat to environmental and human well-being. Rapid, accurate, and remote spatial assessment of oil contamination is critical to implementing countermeasures that prevent potentially lasting ecological damage and irreversible harm to local communities. Satellite remote sensing has been used to support such assessments in inaccessible regions, although mapping small terrestrial oil spills is challenging - partly due to the pixel size of remote sensing systems, but also due to the distinguishability of small oil spill areas from other land cover types.

High concentrations of lead and barium in hair of the rural population caused by water pollution in the Thar Jath oilfields in South Sudan.

In the oil fields of Thar Jath, South Sudan, increasing salinity of drinking water was observed together with human incompatibilities and rise in livestock mortalities. Hair analysis was used to characterize the toxic exposure of the population. Hair samples of volunteers from four communities with different distance from the center of the oil field (Koch 23km, n=24; Leer 50km, n=26; Nyal 110km, n=21; and Rumbek 220km, n=25) were analyzed for altogether 39 elements by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry.