Drone sensing for soil contamination mapping
| Location | Zurich University of the Arts |
| Guests | CHORNOZEM: Kirill Kohl, Olivia Menezes & Yaroslava Shylyk |
| Interviewer | Riva Pinto |
Soil contamination caused by heavy metals is among the most difficult environmental problems to detect and address. It affects agricultural land, ecosystems, and human health, yet often remains invisible and is frequently identified only after significant damage has already occurred. Existing methods for assessing contamination are often complex, costly, and limited to point-based laboratory analyses.
CHORNOZEM is a design project that explores how soil contamination can be made visible through the combination of fluorescence chemistry, drone-based sensing, and computer vision. Developed by the Interaction Design Master’s students Kirill Kohl, Olivia Menezes, Yaroslava Shylyk at the Zurich University of the Arts, the project investigates how contamination patterns beyond localized sampling points can be identified in the field and how environmental data can be made more accessible, legible, and open to discussion.
The project is informed by contexts in which soil contamination has become an urgent issue, including regions affected by military conflict, such as Ukraine. Rather than positioning itself as a diagnostic tool, CHORNOZEM examines how design can contribute to early indication, awareness, and communication of environmental damage.
Positioning design as a mediating discipline between science, technology, and society, CHORNOZEM operates at the intersection of chemistry, autonomous systems, and data visualisation. It raises fundamental questions about how environmental knowledge is produced, how it is communicated, and what responsibilities accompany the use of such technologies.
CHORNOZEM: https://chornozem-black-soil.com
