1. Marine litter weight estimation from UAV imagery: Three potential methodologies to advance macrolitter reports.
- Author
-
Andriolo, Umberto, Gonçalves, Gil, Hidaka, Mitsuko, Gonçalves, Diogo, Gonçalves, Luisa Maria, Bessa, Filipa, and Kako, Shin'ichiro
- Subjects
MARINE debris ,REMOTE sensing ,DRONE aircraft ,POLLUTION - Abstract
In the context of marine litter monitoring, reporting the weight of beached litter can contribute to a better understanding of pollution sources and support clean-up activities. However, the litter scaling task requires considerable effort and specific equipment. This experimental study proposes and evaluates three methods to estimate beached litter weight from aerial images, employing different levels of litter categorization. The most promising approach (accuracy of 80 %) combined the outcomes of manual image screening with a generalized litter mean weight (14 g) derived from studies in the literature. Although the other two methods returned values of the same magnitude as the ground-truth, they were found less feasible for the aim. This study represents the first attempt to assess marine litter weight using remote sensing technology. Considering the exploratory nature of this study, further research is needed to enhance the reliability and robustness of the methods. • Three methods to estimate macro-litter weight from drone aerial images. • The methods are applicable on both manual and automated litter detection. • Weight estimations were of the same magnitude of the ground-truth values. • Best achievements obtained adopting a generalized mean litter weight of 14 g. • Improvement of drone-based litter surveys in coastal and riverine environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF