The Blue Project: Investigating the Remote Sensing of Plastic Marine Litter by Means of Lidar Techniques

Plastic marine litter has become a global threat for the environment and human health. Remote sensing techniques can offer a valuable tool for monitoring the distribution of plastics from regional to global scale and for identifying the major sources of pollution and accumulation areas. In the BLUE project, we have investigated the potential of diverse LIDAR techniques for the detection and identification of plastics in aquatic environment. In this paper, we present both laboratory experiments carried out on different types of raw and marine-weathered plastics by using different techniques, such as Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy. Laboratory experiments have been complemented with at-sea fluorescence LIDAR measurements and processing of airborne backscatter LIDAR data acquired over the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The outcomes provide an insight on the potential of diverse LIDAR techniques for the remote sensing of plastic marine litter.