Registration is open. See Logistics for details or go directly to the [Workspace] to register.
Goals and Scope
The 2022 workshop is a follow-up of the first two Brest meeting on "Technologies for Observing and Monitoring Plastics in the Oceans" in 2018 and "Marine Debris Indicators: What’s Next?" in 2019.
The objective of this third workshop is assess potential solutions for the prevention of marine litter entering the ocean and the reduction of marine litter — in particular plastics — in the ocean. The workshop will refine the road map developed in the first two workshops and compile recommendations to major institutions and funding agencies for future technology and other solution initiatives.
This workshop follows the IEEE special session entitled "Marine Litter: Solutions for Monitoring, Mitigation and Prevention" taking place on Sept 27, 2022 during the Sea Tech Week®, Sept. 26-30 2022, in BREST, France.
Previous Workshops
The November 2018 workshop on “Technologies for Observing and Monitoring Plastics in the Oceans” focused on technology initiatives able to address the mounting global marine debris with particular focus on plastics in the ocean. A main challenge addressed was the development of a methodology for monitoring marine debris indictors, in particular the Indicator 14.1.1 “Index of coastal eutrophication and floating plastic debris density” of SDG 14 “Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.” The major outcome of this workshop was a set of activities and goals for six months, two years and 5 years, which provided an initial road map (see Garello et al., 2019).
The December 2019 workshop on “Marine Debris Indicators: What's Next” brought together experts on observations and monitoring of marine debris and plastic with decision and policy makers in need of comprehensive information on this challenge. A main goal was to converge towards common best practices and potential standards. With relevant stakeholders present, the workshop fostered a collaborative network to ensure that evidence-based decision and policymaking are possible. The workshop explored the potential for a platform linking the data to actions and develop an implementation strategy for observing networks and modeling platforms to support conjointly the different efforts to address the global challenge of marine debris. The draft road map compiled in 2018 was augmented with more detailed six-months activities and a case study on “Reducing Plastics in the Ocean within a Growing Global Economy: Understanding the Information Needs to Support Interventions” was initiated. This case study would prepare the current workshop.
Participation
The workshop will bring together a broad range of stakeholders from the Earth observation communities, research communities assessing the intermediate and longterm impacts of marine debris, United Nations and national agencies engaged in progress towards SDG 14, businesses that are aiming to tackle various aspects of the problem of marine debris, as well as, experts working at the interfaces between these communities with the goal to ensure that useable knowledge required for policy making and planning of action to address the challenge of marine debris is created and well linked to the decision makers.
Workshop Outcomes
The main outcomes of the workshop will be a white paper summarizing the current state of knowledge concerning solution for a clean ocean, identifying emerging technologies and technology needs, and making recommendations to relevant stakeholders (agencies, companies, researchers) concerning systemic and technology developments to tackle the challenge of marine litter.
A workshop report will document the workshop proceeds and report on the further development of the road map.
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