A Proposed Technology Solution for Preventing Marine Littering Based on Uavs and Iot Cloud-Based Data Analytics

Abstract

Pollution in the marine environment is a global problem with severe consequences on marine and terrestrial ecosystems and to human health. It is estimated that every year, eight million tonnes of debris find their way into the world's oceans, mostly consisted of valuable materials which by following land-based routes are finally finding their way into the sea, instead of being recycled and reused, thus disrupting the Circular Economy value circle. Especially in the case of shorelines, which are in the spotlight of the research presented in this paper, fifty to eighty percent of the rejected debris is made of plastic. The research presented in this paper prescribes an innovative technology solution with the potential of mitigating the severity of the marine littering problem. The proposed solution utilizes the combined power of two emerging Industry 4.0 technologies, i.e. UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) and Sensor technology. These two technologies are integrated in a proposed technology system capable of data collection, analysis and presentation through a cloud based platform of software services available to all system users and stakeholders. Furthermore, the proposed solution will provide tools for facilitating and triggering the pro-active role of responsible citizens, while creating a societal consensus through a user friendly and gamified citizens' awareness platform.

Information and Communication Technology Solutions for the Circular Economy

“…Sarc et al stress the importance of digitization and intelligent robotics for the optimization of waste management [37]. Based on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and IoT cloud-based analytics, Stegnos et al propose a solution for preventing marine littering [38].…”

The routledge handbook of catalysts for a sustainable circular economy

“…All these games were presented as prototypes or in the initial stages of their implementation. Four studies (del Campo et al, 2018;González-Briones et al, 2019;Ponis, 2021;Stengos et al, 2019) propose applying gamification in combination with Internet of Things (IoT) technology. Specifically, these studies propose using gamification in relation to waste management, from marine littering control (Ponis, 2021;Stengos et al, 2019) to waste management simulations (González-Briones et al, 2019;Jääskä et al, 2021).…”

“…Four studies (del Campo et al, 2018;González-Briones et al, 2019;Ponis, 2021;Stengos et al, 2019) propose applying gamification in combination with Internet of Things (IoT) technology. Specifically, these studies propose using gamification in relation to waste management, from marine littering control (Ponis, 2021;Stengos et al, 2019) to waste management simulations (González-Briones et al, 2019;Jääskä et al, 2021). The proposed solutions involve the use of sensors to capture the amount and increase of waste in waste disposal containers by which users are credited for having used the recycling container (del Campo et al, Gera & Hasdell, 2020;Kelly et al, 2020;Prabowo et al, 2019), the latter relays one of the main psychological outcomes of introducing gamification to platforms and activities promoting the CE.…”

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“…Finally, the case study reported and discussed, by providing anecdotal evidence on business opportunities and potential synergies among the Marine living resources sector, the Bioeconomy and the Marine renewable energy sector, suggests to managers and practitioners involve in BE sectors viable innovative managerial solutions for setting new collaborative initiative which ground on inter-sectorial collaboration and aim at developing green strategies jointly pursued by both private and public actors operating in different BE businesses. [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41]…”