Marine litter weight estimation from UAV imagery: Three potential methodologies to advance macrolitter reports

Umberto Andriolo; Gil Gonçalves; Mitsuko Hidaka; Diogo Gonçalves; Luisa Maria Gonçalves; Filipa Bessa; Shin'ichiro Kako

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2024.116405

Marine litter weight estimation from UAV imagery: Three potential methodologies to advance macrolitter reports

Mar Pollut Bull. 2024 May:202:116405. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2024.116405. Epub 2024 Apr 24.

Authors

Umberto Andriolo¹, Gil Gonçalves², Mitsuko Hidaka³, Diogo Gonçalves⁴, Luisa Maria Gonçalves⁵, Filipa Bessa⁶, Shin'ichiro Kako⁷

Affiliations

¹ INESC Coimbra, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Polo 2, 3030 - 290 Coimbra, Portugal. Electronic address: uandriolo@mat.uc.pt.
² INESC Coimbra, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Polo 2, 3030 - 290 Coimbra, Portugal; University of Coimbra, Department of Mathematics, Coimbra, Portugal. Electronic address: gil@mat.uc.pt.
³ Research Institute for Value-Added-Information Generation (VAiG), Japan Agency for Marine - Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Yokohama, Japan; Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Department of Engineering, Ocean Civil Engineering Program, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima, Japan. Electronic address: mitsukou@jamstec.go.jp.
⁴ INESC Coimbra, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Polo 2, 3030 - 290 Coimbra, Portugal; University of Coimbra, Department of Civil Engineering, Coimbra, Portugal. Electronic address: diogo.goncalves@mat.uc.pt.
⁵ INESC Coimbra, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Polo 2, 3030 - 290 Coimbra, Portugal; School of Technology and Management, Polytechnic of Leiria, Nova IMS University Lisbon, Portugal. Electronic address: luisa.goncalves@ipleiria.pt.
⁶ Centre for Functional Ecology - Science for People & the Planet (CFE), Associate Laboratory TERRA, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Portugal. Electronic address: afbessa@uc.pt.
⁷ Research Institute for Value-Added-Information Generation (VAiG), Japan Agency for Marine - Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Yokohama, Japan; Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Department of Engineering, Ocean Civil Engineering Program, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima, Japan. Electronic address: kako@oce.kagoshima-u.ac.jp.

PMID: 38663345
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2024.116405

Abstract

In the context of marine litter monitoring, reporting the weight of beached litter can contribute to a better understanding of pollution sources and support clean-up activities. However, the litter scaling task requires considerable effort and specific equipment. This experimental study proposes and evaluates three methods to estimate beached litter weight from aerial images, employing different levels of litter categorization. The most promising approach (accuracy of 80 %) combined the outcomes of manual image screening with a generalized litter mean weight (14 g) derived from studies in the literature. Although the other two methods returned values of the same magnitude as the ground-truth, they were found less feasible for the aim. This study represents the first attempt to assess marine litter weight using remote sensing technology. Considering the exploratory nature of this study, further research is needed to enhance the reliability and robustness of the methods.

Keywords: Coastal pollution; Drone; Marine debris; OSPAR; Remote sensing.

MeSH terms

Environmental Monitoring* / methods
Remote Sensing Technology*
Reproducibility of Results