On the use of drones to detect and map marine macro-litter on the North Atlantic Portuguese beach-dune systems: the experiences of UAS4Litter project

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Umberto Andriolo ◽  
Gil Gonçalves ◽  
Filipa Bessa ◽  
Paula Sobral ◽  
Luis Pinto ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Marine Pollution ◽  
Dynamic Modelling ◽  
Coastal Dunes ◽  
Marine Debris ◽  
Machine Learning Techniques ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Systems ◽  
Marine Litter ◽  
Portuguese Coast ◽  
Dune Systems

<p>Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS, aka drones) are being used to map marine macro-litter on the coast. Within the UAS4Litter project, the application of UAS has been applied on three sandy beach-dune systems on the wave-dominated North Atlantic Portuguese coast. Several technical solutions have been tested in terms of drone mapping performance, manual image screening and marine litter map analysis. The conceptualization and implementation of a multidisciplinary framework allowed to improve and making more efficient the mapping of marine litter items with UAS on coastal environment. </p><p>The location of major marine litter loads within the monitored areas were found associated to beach slope and water level dynamics on the beach profiles. Moreover, the abundance of marine pollution was related to the geographical location and level of urbanization of the study sites. The testing of machine learning techniques underlined that automated technique returned reliable abundance map of marine litter, while manual image screening was required for a detailed categorization of the items. </p><p>As marine litter pollution on coastal dunes has received limited scientific attention when compared with sandy shores, a novel non-intrusive UAS-based marine litter survey have been also applied to quantify the level of contamination on coastal dunes. The results showed the influence of the different dune plant communities in trapping distinct type of marine litter, and the role played by wind and overwash events in defining the items pathways through the dune blowouts. </p><p>The experiences on the Portuguese coast show that UAS allows an integrated approach for marine litter mapping, beach morphodynamic and nearshore hydrodynamic, setting the ground for marine litter dynamic modelling on the shore. Besides, UAS can give a new impulse to coastal dune litter monitoring, where the long residence time of marine debris threat the bio-ecological equilibrium of these ecosystems.</p>

scholarly journals Liability and Compensation for Marine Plastic Pollution: Conceptual Issues and Possible Ways Forward

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 206-211
Author(s):  
Sandrine Maljean-Dubois ◽  
Benoît Mayer
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Marine Pollution ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Expert Group ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Plastic Pollution ◽  
Marine Litter ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
Conceptual Problems

The UN General Assembly and the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) have expressed concerns about the pollution of the sea by plastics, which adversely impacts ecosystems, some economic activities (e.g., tourism and fishing), and possibly public health (e.g., consumption of contaminated fish). In December 2017, the UNEA decided to establish the Ad Hoc Open-Ended Expert Group on Marine Litter and Microplastics to examine ways to combat marine plastic pollution. The group met three times in 2018 and 2019, and at least two more meetings are planned. Among potential responses to the issue of marine pollution, the group briefly considered—but eventually dismissed—the possibility of creating a liability or compensation regime. This essay evaluates the prospects for such a regime. As the essay will show, compensation faces significant conceptual problems, not the least of which is the absence of an obvious recipient. However, some form of liability could be imposed on corporations that produce plastic, or on states that fail to regulate them. Such a liability regime, even without financial compensation, could foster the prevention of further marine plastic pollution.

4 Land-Based Sources of Marine Pollution

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harrison James
Keyword(s):  
Marine Pollution ◽  
Law Of The Sea ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Marine Litter ◽  
Regional Institutions ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
International Instruments ◽  
Marine Environmental ◽  
Different Levels

Chapter 4 addresses the major international instruments that have been adopted to address land-based sources of marine pollution. This category includes industrial, agricultural, and urban discharges, which are amongst the most serious causes of marine environmental degradation, as well as some of the most difficult to regulate. The chapter begins by reviewing the relevant provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and how they apply to land-based activities. It then explores the range of other instruments that have been negotiated on the topic. At the global level, the analysis covers the Global Programme of Action, the POPs Convention, and the Mercury Convention. The most detailed regulations are seen at the regional level, and, therefore, the chapter explains the manner in which regional institutions have developed and overseen a variety of rules and standards to address this threat. The interaction of these different levels is also taken into account, using a case study of marine litter.

scholarly journals Who’s Responsible? Issues in Eradicating Marine Litter In Aceh Jaya Regency

2020 ◽  
Vol 151 ◽  
pp. 01014
Author(s):  
Ika Kusumawati ◽  
Mita Setyowati ◽  
Agung D. Syakti ◽  
Achmad Fahrudin ◽  
Nodi Marefanda
Keyword(s):  
Similar Case ◽  
Solid Material ◽  
Coastal Environment ◽  
Coastal Areas ◽  
Marine Debris ◽  
Marine Litter ◽  
The World ◽  
People’S Perception ◽  
Marine Waste

Marine debris is any persistent, manufactured or processed solid material discarded, disposed of or abandoned in the marine and coastal environment. Debris problem in coastal areas becomes an urgent issue and concerns many countries across the world particularly marine countries such as Indonesia. The research objective was to examine the people's perception towards marine litter in Aceh Jaya Regency about whom responsible for eradicating marine debris. The study was conducted from January to July 2019 by distributing a questionnaire to 382 respondents. The result showed that 46.9% of respondents thought that they were responsible for reducing marine litter. In a similar case, researchers found 53.4% of respondents stated that those who were able to reduce marine waste were community/visitors. The final finding is that 42.1% of the sample shows that NGOs are the parties who are eager to reduce marine litter.

Records of climate changes and anthropogenic actions over dune fields in historical times

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihaela Tudor ◽  
Ana Ramos-Pereira ◽  
Joana Gaspar de Freitas
Keyword(s):  
Climatic Variability ◽  
Coastal Dunes ◽  
Coastal Dune ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Dune System ◽  
Climatic Fluctuations ◽  
Dune Systems ◽  
Sand Drift ◽  
Aeolian Activity ◽  
Historical Times

<p>Coastal dunes are very complex systems and very sensitive to climatic variability and human actions. In Portugal, coastal dune fields have undergone major changes over historical times. The aim of the paper is focused on the coastal dune systems evolution over the last five centuries, natural and man induced (namely by deforestation and afforestation) and their transformation under the present global changes (sea level rise and coastal storms). The analysis of historical records and environmental data using a set of proxies recorded over the last 1,000 yrs, show intense aeolian activity and sand drift episodes during Little Age Period, causing serious problems for human settlements and agriculture. Coastal society have responded to the wind-blown sands fixing the dunes through afforestation. The process is well documented in the historical sources and many management measures, including abundant legislation, projects and reports were carried out by Portuguese authorities to avoid sand incursion inland.  According to the main report of the General Forest Administration, in the final of 18th century, was estimated an area of about 72 000 ha of free aeolian sands in need of afforestation. Thus, along Portuguese coastline, the dunes experienced a period of stability during the 20th century, due to planting of grasses and pine forest. This paper examines the pathways of the transgressive dune fields of the Central Western Portuguese coast, over various stages of coastal evolution. Mapping the morphological features between Mondego river mouth and Nazaré, using a combination of satellite images, aerial photographs and Lidar data we identified distinct phases of aeolian activity and landforms modification that were associated to climatic fluctuations. This coastal dune system is composed by a succession of different aeolian phases, including a littoral foredune, which lies inland with a complexity of morphologies with transverse and crescentic ridges, and also parabolic dunes. The results show that the dunes building and sand migration inland appears to be linked to the conditions of predominantly negative winter North Atlantic Oscillation index (NAOi), driven by climatic variability during Holocene/Antrhopocene. The consistency of intense sand drift episodes with abrupt cold events during Little Age Period, drastically reduced the area occupied by vegetation, causing changes in aeolian sedimentary processes. Thus, it seems that coastal dunes evolution over the past centuries have been controlled by the two-way interactions between natural conditions and human activities, shaping the Portuguese coastline. Placing historical evidence in a geographical perspective, we hope to fill the gaps in coastal zone dynamics, providing new insights of the human-landscape relationships to predict the future response of the coastal dune systems to human pressure and climate change.<br>Key-words: coastal dunes evolution, geomorphological features, sand drift, anthropogenic impacts, climatic fluctuation, Western Portugal.</p>

scholarly journals Multicolony tracking reveals potential threats to little auks wintering in the North Atlantic from marine pollution and shrinking sea ice cover

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 1322-1332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jérôme Fort ◽  
Børge Moe ◽  
Hallvard Strøm ◽  
David Grémillet ◽  
Jorg Welcker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Marine Pollution ◽  
Ice Cover ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Atlantic

The preliminary assessment of abundance and composition of marine beach debris in the northern Persian Gulf, Bandar Abbas City, Iran

2016 ◽  
Vol 96 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaleh Sarafraz ◽  
Mahdi Rajabizadeh ◽  
Ehsan Kamrani
Keyword(s):  
Marine Biology ◽  
Coastal Areas ◽  
Marine Debris ◽  
Litter Production ◽  
Marine Litter ◽  
The North ◽  
Coastal Cities ◽  
Student Volunteers ◽  
Common Items ◽  
Bandar Abbas

Marine debris is a major challenge threatening ocean and coastal environment with no easy solution in coming years. The problem is totally manmade and extendeds to coastal areas around the world. The accumulation of marine debris is largely due to lack of awareness and environmental education among the public reinforced with mismanagement of municipal litter in coastal cities. Iran has about 2415 km of coastlines in the north and south of the country that suffer severely from a marine debris problem. Despite the great scale of the problem that leads to the shutdown of some beaches to beachgoers, there are no documented data on the abundance, composition and sources of marine debris dispersed on beaches. With the cooperation of marine biology student volunteers, we surveyed beaches at two scales, 100 m and 1 km searching for litter in varying ranges. The results revealed that the most common items are made of plastic/polystyrene. Tourism and recreational activities are responsible for more than 90% of litter production on the study beach. Fisheries and aquaculture are the second source of most abundant marine litter found on the beach with considerable distance from tourism activities. We conclude that lack of education about the consequences of marine litter is the main reason for marine debris at the study beach. Another reason is related to rapid construction of coastal areas and development of coastal cities with no proper infrastructure to manage municipal littering.

scholarly journals MARINE LITTER ON THE COAST OF THE SEA OF AZOV: STRUCTURE AND DISTRIBUTION

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (5) ◽  
pp. 149-153
Author(s):  
A.V. Kleshchenkov ◽  
◽  
K.S. Sushko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Marine Environment ◽  
Marine Debris ◽  
Coastal Processes ◽  
Sea Of Azov ◽  
Marine Litter ◽  
The Sea Of Azov

The article is devoted to one of the most urgent problems of modern Oceanology – marine litter. The purpose of this work was to study the distribution of marine litter on the coast of the sea of Azov. The article presents the results of field expeditions, during which observations were made on an wide network of points covering various parts of the coast, which differ both in the type and direction of coastal processes, as well as in recreational load and economic development. All marine litter was divided into 12 classes and an assessment of the occurrence of various classes was performed. The regularities of the distribution of various classes of marine debris are considered and information about their quantity in different areas is provided. There is a widespread contamination of the coast of the sea of Azov with mounting foam, which is potentially dangerous in the context of microplastic pollution of the marine environment.

scholarly journals Coastal dunes of Ontario: distribution and geomorphology

2011 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Martini
Keyword(s):  
Great Lakes ◽  
Short Distance ◽  
Great Part ◽  
Coastal Dunes ◽  
Glacial Lakes ◽  
Coastal System ◽  
Beach Ridges ◽  
Dune Systems ◽  
Coastal Systems ◽  
Transverse Dunes

Transverse dunes (fore-dunes), parabolic dunes, rare cliff-top dunes, and blowouts are found in Ontario. Many of these coastal dunes are land-locked on abandoned sand plains of partially drained early-post glacial lakes and seas. Others are part of coastal systems found at different stages of evolution along the Great Lakes. An idealized coastal system, as is for great part well developed at Wasaga Beach, includes the following elements: a few metres high foredunes partially deflated and breached by wave washover; low, long, narrow, marshy zones landward from the foredunes: the "pannes"; a wide sequence of numerous beach ridges capped by small (2 m high) stabilized foredunes, and separated by long shallow swales covered by water for several months of the year; intensely deflated transverse dunes which record raised coastlines of old lakes; and finally, high (up to 25 m) nested parabolic dunes showing progressive landward increase in height. These high dunes have developed over sandy, gravelly bars of early Holocene lakes, and have prograded for a short distance over lagoons. Most of the dune systems found along the Great Lakes have developed in the last 3-5000 years. Some of them have been intensely affected by man during the last two centuries, particularly by logging, agriculture, and recreational activities. Some dune fields have been completely flattened, others on the contrary have been reactivated by deforestation, and new dunes have formed and have migrated landward onto forests and cultivated fields.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document