GIC presented its ongoing work to fight plastic pollution using geospatial technology at the United Nations Environment Program’s (UNEP) 13th Digital Discovery Session on September 14, 2021.
Digital Discovery Sessions are two-hour long webinars designed to serve as a platform for joint learning where those in the environmental field can learn about the latest environmental applications of digital technology. The sessions skew towards topics involving climate action, biodiversity conservation, and pollution control. UNEP’s CounterMEASURE project, a concerted region-wide effort to reduce plastic waste in waterways, was the focus of the latest Digital Discovery Session.
Dr. Kavinda Gunasekara shared GIC’s latest work for the CounterMEASURE Project, including plastic waste data collection efforts in the Lower Mekong River Basin, a plastic litter hotspot map for Ubon Ratchathani province created using a deep learning model with roadside images, and GIS analysis of plastic leakage hotspots in the region. Dr. Gunasekara also highlighted upcoming GIC research efforts using unmanned aerial vehicles and CCTV cameras to monitor plastic waste in greater Bangkok waterways.
Additional technology-related sessions focused on CounterMEASURE partners who are operating around the region, including a microplastic survey in Vietnam, development of a CounterMEASURE knowledge management platform, and other AI applications for plastic pollution detection.