UN Decade Laboratory Day2 Part2b

Programme:

19th November 13:00 -15:00 CET

Part 2b – Science & Technology capabilities (II)

Introductory presentation to the session, Shungu Garaba
Laia Romero, Lobelia Earth, Spain
Nikolai Maximenko, University of Hawaii, USA
Kostas Topouzelis, University of the Aegean, Greece
Caleb Kruse, Earthrise Media, USA
Breakup discussion and summary, moderated by Shungu Garaba

The satellite event aims to raise awareness, among Member States and stakeholders, about the state-of-the-art capabilities and limitations of remote sensing to support the monitoring and management of marine litter, by means of instruments on board of satellites, aircraft, and drones. Creating this awareness is an essential part to align needs with capabilities and find a common ground for a successful development of the technologies.

We will discuss these needs of the target community, explain the current and near future capabilities, the best available techniques, and agree on a roadmap to match them together, along with the elaboration of a set of actions and recommendations to support their development and fulfilment.

We will coordinate existing working groups to support a Call-for-Action platform to foster the use of remote sensing as a complementary monitoring strategy for marine litter. The activity will benefit from the full support and participation of the IOCCG Task Force on Remote Sensing of Marine Litter and Debris, as well as of a coordinated set of international experts from academia, industry, civil society and stakeholders from the global network that the organizing committee of this Activity has access to, which includes OASIS, IMDOS and the Marine Debris Working Group from Blue Planet.

The event will impact the community by linking participants and stakeholders with the recently formed international task force, focusing on this emerging research field, and enabling guidelines and knowledge and networking opportunities, with the goal to grow the community in a coordinated way, optimizing the international efforts.

The connections with world-leading space agencies (NASA, ESA, JAXA, ISRO) enable the transformation of the conclusions and recommendations of the Satellite Activity, into real action plans for the deployment of the technologies and services required by the stakeholders, to be developed in the years to come.

The expected follow-up annual events will serve to monitor such developments and update the roadmap according to the evolving needs of cleaning and mitigation strategies, as well as of the policy makers.

Being remote sensing technologies one of the most affordable and low-cost solutions within reach of developing countries, our science-based and pragmatic approach for the activity is meant to take this fact in consideration, acknowledging that are precisely those countries in the most need of technical solutions at their disposal for tackling the environmental issue of marine litter.

The aim of these approaches is to work collectively with the global community towards the objective of “A Clean Ocean” within the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, and in particular the objectives of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 14.1, the G20 Osaka Blue Ocean Vision, the ASEAN Framework of Action on Marine Debris, national policy goals and Action Plans to end marine litter.

With such purpose, the expected outcomes will be drawn so to produce measurable impact within the indicators agreed by the international community and UNEP on this decadal global sustainability objective.

Finally, we aim to produce a resilient and lasting impact within the global community, by promoting the event and its outcomes beyond the life of the Satellite Activity, in the following way:

- With the organization of follow-up activities in annual basis.

- Generating, storing, and openly distributing the recordings of the sessions and discussions of the Satellite Activity.

- Sharing the messages received from the global community during the event, whereas as recorded personal videos, or written messages.

- Producing a documentary of the event, including participation of relevant personalities and stakeholders.

More information here: https://www.aircentre.org/remote-sensing-applications-for-marine-litter/