Vessel-based photographic assessment of beach litter in remote coasts. A wide scale application in Saronikos Gulf, Greece

The abundance of marine debris was quantified for a total of sixty-two inaccessible beaches in the western Saronikos Gulf, Greece. High resolution images were obtained through vessel-based photography survey, merged into seamless photomosaics, and manually processed to quantify beach litter abundanc...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Marine pollution bulletin 2020-01, Vol.150, p.110684-110684, Article 110684
Main Authors: Papachristopoulou, Irene, Filippides, Anastasios, Fakiris, Elias, Papatheodorou, George
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abundance
Bathing Beaches
Beach litter
Beaches
Coasts
Environmental Monitoring
Greece
Hydrodynamics
Image resolution
Litter
Marine debris
Marine litter
Marine pollution
Photography
Plastics
Polls & surveys
Regression analysis
Regression models
Remote beaches
Remote monitoring
Saronikos gulf Greece
Shoreline litter
Stranding
Surveying
Surveys
Vessel-based photography
Vessels
Waste Products
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The abundance of marine debris was quantified for a total of sixty-two inaccessible beaches in the western Saronikos Gulf, Greece. High resolution images were obtained through vessel-based photography survey, merged into seamless photomosaics, and manually processed to quantify beach litter abundance. A sample of four selected beaches were subjected to detailed photography followed by beach macro-litter (≥ 2.5 cm) in-situ sampling surveys over a period of one year, to calibrate and validate the proposed method. Regression analysis between photographic and in-situ data showed a significant correlation, hence providing a highly accurate regression model to assess the real number of beach litter stranded on the rest of the investigated beaches, exhibiting clear correlations to the hydrodynamic status of the area and, provide an indication of the main litter sources. The proposed method is an easily applicable and useful tool for fast and low-cost macro-litter monitoring in extended, remote coastlines, when only photographic data are available. •Vessel-based, beach litter monitoring.•High resolution, fast, low cost and easily applicable method for photographic beach litter identification.•Macro-litter monitoring in extended, remote, inaccessible coastlines.•Beach litter assessment for the inaccessible beaches of western Saronikos Gulf, Greece.
ISSN:0025-326X
1879-3363
DOI:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.110684