Toward a harmonized approach for monitoring of riverine floating macro litter inputs to the marine environment.
Published on by Kim van Arkel, Scientific Advisor in Science
Abstract:
A high percentage of the litter entering the marine environment is assumed to come from land-based sources, but freshwater litter inputs have not been quantified. The lack of data and knowledge on fluxes of riverine litter to the sea, i.e., quantities and sources, hinders implementation of appropriate environmental regulations and mitigation measures. Estimations of riverine litter inputs require a consistent and harmonized approach to gather comparable data. The visual observation of floating litter on rivers has been selected as a simple and robust methodology for litter monitoring. A collaborative network of 36 institutions has been set-up for large spatial coverage. Currently 58 rivers are being observed regularly. A tablet computer application has been developed for the monitoring of floating macro litter (>2.5 cm) to harmonize the visual observations. The application allows recording of the observed items, their size and geo-position data during monitoring sessions. A common agreed list of litter items and size ranges is used, providing a common harmonized approach for data collection and reporting.
Keywords : litter, plastics, floating debris, environmental monitoring, pollution, marine litter, Riverine input
Edited by:
Julia Reisser, The Ocean Cleanup, Netherlands
Reviewed by:
Francois Galgani, French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea, France
Monica Ferreira da Costa , Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil
Cristina Panti, University of Siena, Italy
Copyright © 2017 González-Fernández and Hanke. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).
Media
Taxonomy
- Water
- Water Pollution
- Pollution
- Polymers & Plastics
- Environmental Science
- Marine litter