Title:	UNMANNED VEHICLES SYSTEM UTILIZING WASTE TRACKING DATA TO TACKLE PLASTIC MARINE LITTERING ON TOURIST ISLANDS
Author(s):	George Plakas, Stavros T. Ponis, Eleni Aretoulaki and Theodoros Nikolaos Maroutas
ISBN:	978-989-8704-32-0
Editors:	Yingcai Xiao, Ajith Abraham and Guo Chao Peng
Year:	2021
Edition:	Single
Keywords:	Plastic Marine Littering, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USV), Internet of Things (IoT), Low-Power Wide-Area Networks (LPWAN),
Type:	Reflection
First Page:	161
Last Page:	165
Language:	English
Cover:
Full Contents:	click to dowload
Paper Abstract:	Marine pollution is undoubtedly a global, serious and rapidly increasing problem, as millions of tons of waste end up in the marine environment annually, causing multiple negative environmental, economic, health and aesthetic impacts, which are even more damaging for islands that base their economy on the tourism industry. The majority of marine pollution comes from anthropogenic and land-based activities and therefore it remains a critical issue to be tackled, especially in the case of plastic waste, which should be prevented from infiltrating the marine environment. Researchers have made many proposals and used a plethora of innovative technologies to deal with the phenomenon, one of the most promising of which is unmanned vehicles technology. Both aerial and surface unmanned vehicles offer feasible solutions in monitoring the evolution of the problem, although there is still room for improvement in achieving more efficient monitoring. In this paper, a solution utilizing data collected from a tracking plastic litter project is proposed, designed to monitor specific areas that accumulate large amounts of waste and inform the appropriate authorities, who will subsequently recruit volunteers to clean them up in time, before the plastics enter the marine environment.
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