Countermeasures programme: Digital best practices in tackling marine plastic litter.

This Digital Discovery session focused on the Countermeasures programme: Digital best practices in tackling marine plastic litter.

Countermeasures is a pioneering multistakeholder partnership including UNEP and Google as well as a range of Universities and thinktanks funded by the Government of Japan

Website: https://countermeasure.asia/

Data platform: https://gicait.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=b8480833b9de498abeddeae2cfd803d5

Press release: https://countermeasure.asia/unep-and-google-partner-to-hunt-for-plastic-pollution-with-machine-learning/

The panelists working in the UNEP’s CounterMEASURE project talked about how their work in the Mekong and Ganges River Basins deploying citizen science and frontier technologies like GIS, machine learning and drones, can help identify sources and pathways of plastic pollution in river systems in Asia. Their work, done in partnership with universities, NGOs, businesses, and other international organizations, is generating data to make the most comprehensive map of plastic waste to inform policy decisions and actions to reduce plastic waste in rivers.  

The session shared the first-hand experience in project design and implementation, technology application, scaling impact, and partnership building. It will reflect on the digital tools that have enabled to project to successfully tackle a global challenge such as plastic pollution in the region. 

Speakers included:

• Kakuko Nagatani-Yoshida, UNEP Chief Technical Advisor of the project CounterMEASURE
• Prof. Dr. Oliver Zielinski, Head of Marine Sensor Systems, Center for Marine Sensors (ZfMarS), Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), University of Oldenburg, Germany
• Dr. Kavinda Gunasekara, Geoinformatics Center, Asian Institute of Technology
• Dr. Emilie Strady, IRD and University of Technology of Ho Chi Minh City
• Mr Jaikumar Sabanayagam, United Nations Office of Information and Communications Technology (OICT)
• Atima Mankotia, UNEP Communication and Advocacy Lead CounterMEASURE