JRC Floating Litter Monitoring App

The new JRC Floating Litter Monitoring app is designed for tablet computers to monitor floating macrolitter (>2.5 cm) in the sea and rivers. The monitoring method is based on visual observations from vantage points over the water surface (e.g., ships, bridges).

Observers have to fill in metadata fields and acquire GPS position before starting a monitoring session. Once a monitoring session has been started, a full list of litter items organized by materials and certain categories is available to classify the observed floating items (harmonized with the EU Joint List of Litter Categories for Marine Macrolitter Monitoring). Once an item is selected, a secondary menu pops up to describe additional information. The selected litter items are recorded along with time and GPS data. When the monitoring session is finished, a file is created with all metadata and litter data fields recorded during the session.

The observers have to register as users of the app via EU login account. It is necessary to upload the monitoring sessions to the Floating Litter Monitoring data portal (website). Users can manage their data files (export, import, etc.) at the data portal.

The new version of the app will be available for testing and data collection under the INSPIRE project.