The Plastic Tide // Peter Kohler, Plastic Tide & Dr Dirk Gorissen, Oxbiotica
We all know that plastic contamination in our seas is a problem but turning this into meaningful policy action is a challenge. In this seminar we hear from a multidisciplinary team who are developing and applying an approach to auto-detect, monitor and measure the levels of plastics washing up on our beaches. The technique involves an assembly of volunteer piloted drone-mounted video sensors and learning algorithms trained by citizen classifiers via the Zooniverse platform. The vision is to map where plastics and litter accumulate, to provide a new data source for research, policy and activism.