Assessing the detection of floating plastic litter with advanced remote sensing technologies in a hydrodynamic test facility

Remote sensing technologies have the potential to support monitoring of floating plastic litter in aquatic environments. An experimental campaign was carried out in a large-scale hydrodynamic test facility to explore the detectability of floating plastics in ocean waves, comparing and contrasting di...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2024-10, Vol.14 (1), p.25902-15, Article 25902
Main Authors: de Fockert, A., Eleveld, M. A., Bakker, W., Felício, J. M., Costa, T. S., Vala, M., Marques, P., Leonor, N., Moreira, A., Costa, J. R., Caldeirinha, R. F. S., Matos, S. A., Fernandes, C. A., Fonseca, N., Simpson, M.D., Marino, A., Gandini, E., Camps, A., Perez-Portero, A., Gonga, A., Burggraaff, O., Garaba, S. P., Salama, M.S., Xiao, Q., Calvert, R., van den Bremer, T. S., de Maagt, P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
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704/525/2810
Aquatic environment
Beaches
Biofilms
Civil engineering
Cleanup operations
Environmental monitoring
Experiments
Humanities and Social Sciences
Litter
Measurement techniques
multidisciplinary
Ocean waves
Plastic debris
Plastic pollution
Plastics
Polarization
Polyethylene
Remote sensing
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Sensors
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Summary:Remote sensing technologies have the potential to support monitoring of floating plastic litter in aquatic environments. An experimental campaign was carried out in a large-scale hydrodynamic test facility to explore the detectability of floating plastics in ocean waves, comparing and contrasting different microwave and optical remote sensing technologies. The extensive experiments revealed that detection of plastics was feasible with microwave measurement techniques using X and Ku-bands with VV polarization at a plastic threshold concentration of 1 item/m 2 or 1–10 g/m 2 . The optical measurements further revealed that spectral and polarization properties in the visible and infrared spectrum had diagnostic information unique to the floating plastics. This assessment presents a crucial step towards enabling the detection of aquatic plastics using advanced remote sensing technologies. We demonstrate that remote sensing has the potential for global targeting of plastic litter hotspots, which is needed for supporting effective clean-up efforts and scientific evidence-based policy making.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-024-74332-5