[O-03] Everything you need to know about marine plastics pollution

[O03-02] Diagnosing ocean plastic pollution with remote sensing and AI-driven image analysis.

★Invited Papers

*Shinichiro Kako^1,2 (1.Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Kagoshima University, 2.Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC))

Keywords:ocean plastic pollution, remote sensing, AI-based image analysis

The Osaka Blue Ocean Vision to reduce additional marine plastic pollution to zero by 2050 was launched at the G20 Osaka Summit in 2019, but no specific numerical targets based on science have been set. This is because there is no way of investigating where and to what extent the reduction will have an impact on achieving the additional zero plastic pollution. Indeed, many researchers and local governments have been carried out the beach surveys to investigate the abundance of plastic marine debris and its composition, but most of these have largely depended on human observations. Such surveys are time-consuming and costly, which makes it difficult to conduct them over a wide area and inevitably they can only be carried out sporadically. To address these problems, many methods using remote sensing and image analysis based on AI have been proposed in recent years, which enable more efficient observation of a wider area. This presentation will introduce methods for observing plastic litter in the cities and beaches using smartphone applications, webcams, and drones, as well as AI-based image analysis for identifying and quantifying plastic litter from images obtained from remote sensing observation. Based on an understanding of these capabilities and limitations, effective countermeasures to combat plastic waste pollution in the future will be discussed.