The PlastOPol system for marine litter monitoring by citizen scientists

Abstract

Marine plastic pollution has in recent decades become ubiquitous, posing threats to flora, fauna, and potentially human health. Proper monitoring and registration of litter occurrences are, therefore, of paramount importance to support better-informed decision-making. In this paper, we introduce the PlastOPol marine litter monitoring system. PlastOPol integrates external data sources on beached litter with data collected through citizen science initiatives based on the use of a mobile application (App). The App relies on state-of-the-art machine-learning approaches for litter detection and registration. The system also supports a human-in-the-loop strategy based on which improved versions of litter detection models are created over time thanks to annotations by citizen scientists. Finally, the system includes a geographic visualization tool to support the analysis of litter distribution data by decision-makers. This system has the potential to create a direct path between citizens, researchers, and decision-makers on the issue of marine litter. Finally, the paper presents compelling usage scenarios of the proposed monitoring system and discusses the evaluation of the App through a user study. The user study suggests that the PlastOPol system is an effective and valuable tool to monitor and communicate marine litter.